The Cambridge Companion to Zola (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Cambridge University Press, 2/15/2007
EAN 9780521835947, ISBN10: 0521835941

Hardcover, 246 pages, 23.4 x 15.4 x 2 cm
Language: English

Emile Zola is a towering literary figure of the nineteenth century. His main literary achievement was his twenty-volume novel cycle, Les Rougon-Macquart (1870–93). In this series he combines a novelist's skills with those of the investigative journalist to examine the social, sexual and moral landscape of the late nineteenth century in a way that scandalized bourgeois society. In 1898 Zola crowned his literary career with a political act, his famous open letter ('J'accuse…!') to the President of the French Republic in defence of Alfred Dreyfus. The essays in this volume offer readings of individual novels as well as analyses of Zola's originality, his representation of society, sexuality and gender, his relations with the painters of his time, his narrative art, and his role in the Dreyfus Affair. The Companion also includes a chronology, detailed summaries of all of Zola's novels, suggestions for further reading, and information about specialist resources.

Chronology
Zola's novels
a summary
Family tree of the Rougon-Macquart
1. Zola and the nineteenth century Brian Nelson
2. Family histories and family plots Nicholas White
3. Zola and the representation of society Sandy Petrey
4. Questions of sexuality and gender Hannah Thompson
5. Zola and contemporary painting Robert Lethbridge
6. Zola and the art of fiction Chantal Pierre-Gnassounou
7.Thérèse Raquin
animal passion and the brutality of reading Susan Harrow
8. Nana
the world, the flesh and the devil Valerie Minogue
9. Germinal
the gathering storm David Baguley
10. La Bête humaine
the poetics of the unconscious Rae Beth Gordon
11. Zola's utopias Julia Przybos
12. 'J'accuse…!'
Zola and the Dreyfus Affair Owen Morgan
Further reading and specialist resources.