Abstract
Very few writers have been able to successfully negotiate the two limits realism imposes on a writer: frame the truths of human existence, yet remain conscious about the flow of time. Akhtaruzzaman Elias (1943–1997) was able to do both. Elias was passionately critical about writers' tendency to represent the social life in monochrome; in his own novels as well, he tried to capture social changes in relation to individuals' struggles and transformations. This paper tries to understand Elias's take on realism through two techniques he employs in his fictions to capture contradiction and simultaneity: dialectics and trompe l'oeil.