Émile Zola E-Book

50MINUTES

• Herausgeber: 50Minutes.com
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Serie: Art & Literature
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 40

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Keen to learn but short on time? Find out everything you need to know about the life and work of Émile Zola in just 50 minutes with this straightforward and engaging guide!

Émile Zola was the leading figure of the 19th-century literary movement of naturalism and remains one of France’s best-known and most celebrated authors. With his sweeping 20-novel cycle Les Rougon-Macquart and other novels such as Thérèse Raquin, he provided a meticulous depiction of the society of his time and aimed to study the impact of a range of social, environmental and biological factors on individuals. He also believed in writers’ responsibility to effect social change and bring about a better world, and took stances on a range of contemporary issues, notably the Dreyfus affair with his famous open letter J’accuse…!

In this book, you will learn about:
• The major historical, social and economic developments that influenced Zola’s work
• The main ideas and principles behind the literary movement of naturalism
• Zola’s most important works, the reception they met with and their impact on later authors

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Leseprobe

Émile Zola

Name: Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola.Born: 2 April 1840 in Paris.Died: 29 September 1902 in Paris.Context: during the second half of the 19th century, Europe was gradually entering the modern era as a direct consequence of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism. At this time, a heightened form of realism emerged in art and literature, with the aim of representing everyday life as faithfully as possible.Notable works:Thérèse Raquin (1867), novelThe Belly of Paris (1873), novelL’Assommoir (1877), novelNana (1880), novelThe Ladies’ Paradise (1883), novelGerminal (1885), novelThe Human Beast (1890), novelDoctor Pascal (1893), novel

Over 100 years after his death, Émile Zola’s name still holds an important place in the collective imagination. He was one of the most popular French writers of his time and remains one of the most widely read, translated and studied authors in the world. He was the leading figure of naturalism, a literary movement which sought to apply the scientific method to writing, as he laid the movement’s theoretical foundations and popularised it. During his lifetime, his work was met with unprecedented enthusiasm: it had a major impact on and garnered effusive praise from the public and critics alike, and his writing style remained the dominant model for the next several decades.

In addition to his talent as a writer, Zola had a keen eye for the truth. This can be seen in his books, and especially in his sprawling 20-novel familial and social history Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893), which provides a meticulous depiction of the world, society and its various social classes. His search for the truth is also made evident by his political and social commitment, and in particular in his role in the Dreyfus affair. Zola threw his support behind Alfred Dreyfus, an army officer who was wrongfully accused of leaking French military secrets and wrote his famous pamphlet J’accuse…! (“I accuse…!”, 1898) in his defence. As both a literary genius and a staunch opponent of injustice in all its forms, Zola’s reputation reached almost mythical proportions, and he remains a beloved figure today.

Context

From Monarchy to Empire to Republic

The 19th century in general was a period of major upheaval, and this was also true during Zola’s lifetime. Having spent his childhood in the countryside, far from the concerns of the July Monarchy (1830-1848), he arrived in Paris in 1848, the year that the Second Republic, led by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (1808-1873), the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), was established. However, this regime was short-lived: Bonaparte launched a coup d’état in December 1851 and founded the Second French Empire (a regime that Zola hated) in 1852. He proclaimed himself emperor, adopted the name Napoleon III, established an authoritarian regime, profoundly modernised the country and sought to expand French territory.

However, France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) dealt the death blow to the Empire’s prestige, and in in 1870 it was replaced by the Third Republic. This was the first sustained period of relative stability since the French Revolution in 1789 and lasted until 1940. However, the new regime was not met with universal acceptance in its early days: there was an uprising in Paris from March to May 1871, partly because the city’s inhabitants did not want to submit to the victorious Prussians. This revolt, known as the Paris Commune, was violently repressed by Adolphe Thiers’ (1797-1877) government in a series of brutal attacks. The insurrection came to an end after La semaine sanglante (“The Bloody Week”) from 21 to 28 May 1871 and resulted in the loss of an estimated 20 000 lives. After this upheaval, the National Assembly was reluctant to implement any abrupt changes, and took nine years to finalise the new regime’s laws and constitution. These new legal precepts were strongly influenced by modernisation and incorporated previously controversial subjects such as the rights to secularism, strike action and freedom of assembly.

Evolutions and revolutions on the road to modernity

In addition to the political instability that characterised the 19th