literary critics in Korea. How can we embody ‘the sensible’ that the aesthetic regime of art aims to make democratic, if not for the Realism’s “endless battles against metaphors fought through metaphors,” which thereby make a stand against the establishment of words and letters in hierarchical stereotype? This rhetorical question clarifies the fact that a critique of the hierarchical distribution of the sensible should not necessarily lead to dumping representation along with Aristotelian mimesis. The deconstructive impulse inherent in genuine realism questions not only the hierarchy but also the very concept of representation. But this impulse becomes creative only when it captures the tension between will-to-the-revelation of the word and non-verbal awareness of reality. Our final account of realism then is up to its creative encounter with theoretical challenge from in/outside, Ranci？rian aesthetics among others.