Émile Zola’s climate history of the Second Empire
This article looks at Émile Zola’s novel cycle “Les Rougon-Macquart” and argues that it describes its subject, the Second Empire, as a warming climate tending toward climate catastrophe. Zola’s affinity to the notion of climate is shown to be linked to his poetic employment of the concept of ‘milieu...
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2020 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Alcalá (UAH) |
| Repository: | e_Buah Biblioteca Digital Universidad de Alcalá |
| Language: | English |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ebuah.uah.es:10017/42637 |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10017/42637 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Rougon-Macquart Hippolyte Taine Clima Calentamiento global Climate Global warming Milieu Literatura Medio ambiente Literature Environmental science |
| Summary: | This article looks at Émile Zola’s novel cycle “Les Rougon-Macquart” and argues that it describes its subject, the Second Empire, as a warming climate tending toward climate catastrophe. Zola’s affinity to the notion of climate is shown to be linked to his poetic employment of the concept of ‘milieu,’ inspired by Hippolyte Taine. Close readings of selected passages from the “Rougon-Macquart” are used to work out the climatic difference between ‘the old’ and ‘the new Paris,’ and the process of warming that characterises the Second Empire. Octave Mouret’s department store holds a special place in the article, as it is analysed through what the article suggests calling a ‘meteorotopos’: a location of intensified climatic conditions that accounts for an increased interaction between human and non-human actors. The department store is also one of the many sites in the novel cycle that locally prefigure the ‘global’ climate catastrophe of Paris burning, in which the Second Empire perishes. |
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