Hunters in the Snow

While Realism uses simple language to explore everyday life rather than fantastical tales and adventures, Dirty Realism is a subcategory of Realism that explores the darker side of contemporary life and often focuses on the world of those in a lower socioeconomic group.

Editor and author Bill Buford coined the term in 1983, two years after Wolff published “Hunters in the Snow.” In Buford’s words, Dirty Realism explores “the belly-side of contemporary life […] informed by discomforting and sometimes elusive irony” and follows the boring lives of normal people, people who “hunt deer, and stay in cheap hotels,” people who “are often in trouble: for stealing a car, breaking a window, pickpocketing a wallet […] drifters in a world cluttered with junk food and the oppressive details of modern consumerism” (Buford, Bill. “Editorial.” Granta, 1 Jun. 1983). This description is directly applicable to “Hunters in the Snow,” from its irony to the hunting to Tub’s overeating.

The characterization of Kenny, Frank, and Tub as irresponsible, neglectful, and aggressive fits the notion that Dirty Realism often follows people who get into trouble.