The Literature Book

190

HE SIMPLY WANTED

TO GO DOWN THE MINE

AGAIN TO SUFFER

AND TO STRUGGLE

GERMINAL (1885), ÉMILE ZOLA

N

aturalism was a literary

movement that evolved in

mid-19th-century France,

in reaction to the sentimental

imagination of Romanticism. Rather

than depicting an idealized world,

naturalism focused on the harsh

lives of those in the lowest social

strata. It had much in common with

realism, which sought to present an

accurate evocation of ordinary life,

as exemplified in Gustave Flaubert’s

Madame Bovary. Naturalism had

similar literary ambitions and used

detailed realism, but was rooted in

the theory that humans are unable

to transcend the impact of their

environment. Therefore, naturalist

authors applied quasi-scientific

principles of objectivity and

observation to examine how

characters react when placed in

adverse conditions. In effect, all

naturalist fiction is also realist,

but the reverse is not always true.

Documentary realism

The leading figure of the naturalist

movement was the French writer

Émile Zola. Germinal is Zola’s 13th

novel in the 20-volume Rougon-

Macquart series, subtitled “The

natural and social history of a family

under the Second Empire,” in which

he studies the deterministic effects

of heredity and environment on

different characters within a single

extended family. In the new French

revolutionary calendar, “Germinal”

was the name of the spring month,

when plants begin to sprout: the

title thus refers, optimistically, to

the possibility of a better future.

Zola depicts the life of a

mining community in northern

France, portraying the struggle

between capital and labor as well

as the inexorable workings of the

environment and heredity on his

frequently ill-fated characters. He

researched the background to his

story minutely, inspired in part by

miners strikes in 1869 and 1884.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Naturalism

BEFORE

1859 On the Origin of Species,

by English naturalist Charles

Darwin, has a profound impact

on numerous literary works,

encouraging a belief in

physiological determinism.

1874 Thomas Hardy’s Far

From the Madding Crowd,

with its fatalistic portrayal of

the inequitable condition of

humankind, foreshadows

French naturalism.

AFTER

1891 English novelist George

Gissing’s New Grub Street

looks at the damaging effect

of poverty on creativity.

1895 Set during the American

Civil War, Stephen Crane’s The

Red Badge of Courage presents

with psychological naturalism

an inexperienced soldier’s

reactions to the bloodshed.

Blow the candle out.

I don’t need to see what

colour my thoughts are.

Germinal

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