Explosive Narratives: Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Ed...

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 1. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=1

Explosive Narratives Terrorism anD AHarcb� h1 the Works of Emile zola

Eouaroo A. Febles

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 2. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=2

Explosive Narratives Terrorism ana Anarcb:9 in tbe Works of Emile zola

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 3. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=3

FAUX TITRE

350

Etudes de langue et liw;!rature franyaises publiees SOllS

1a direction de

Keirh Busby, tM.). Freeman,

Sjef Houppermans er Paul Pelckmans

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 4. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=4

Explosive Narratives Terrorism anD Anarch� in the works of Emi[e zo[a

Eouaroo A. Febles

AMSTERDAM -

NEW YORK, NY 2010

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 5. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=5

Illustration cover: Emile Henry, Cafe Terminus Paris, 1 2 February, 1 894. Silk screen print by Flavio Costantini, 1 9 7 1 , www.christiebooks.com;

The Art ofAnarchy by Flavio Costantini, 1 975 (Cienfuegos Press, London). Cover design: Pier Post. The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirem ents of 'ISO 9706: 1 994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents Requirements for pennanence'. Le papier sur lequel le present ouvrage est imprime remp1it 1es prescriptions de 'ISO 9706: 1 994, Information et documentation - Papier pOllr documents Prescriptions pour la permanence'. ISBN: 978-90-420-3064-0 E-Book ISBN: 978-90-420-3065-7

© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2010 Printed in The Netherlands

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 6. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=6

Table of Contents Acknowledgments

7

Introduction: Anarchy, Entropy, Naturalism

9

Anarchy Entropy

22

Naturalism

28

Chapter 1 Souvarine's Vanishing Act: The Effacement of Anarchy in Germinal

33

The Ambiguous Politics aJGerminal The Resurgence ojAnarchyfrom the Underground Mine Undermining Narratives: The Sub-text ojAnarchy

36 45 55

Chapter 2 Anarchy as Narrative Capital: The Emplotment of Terrorism in Paris

65

The Political Discourse in Paris Anarchy as Narrative Capilal Towards Utopia: Taking the Bire Dllt afA narchy

73 89 96

25

Chapter 3 The Anarchic Commune as World's Fair in Travail

109

Ide% gicci/ Welding: Fourier and Anarchism Revolutiol101Y Rape as Eflfropic I-Ieat Death Beyond Narrative Entropy: Utopia The Anarchic Commune as World's Fair

123 130 140 151

Epilogue Zola's Dream

167

Bibliography Index

181 193

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 7. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=7

Acknowledgments

The process of writing (I hook C(ln be comp
8

Explosive Narratives

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 8. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=8

My parents and family provided me with the strength to accomplish my goals. My parents are the fountain of my thirst for knowledge and I thank them for instilling in me the curiosity that has driven all of my endeavors. I dedicate this book to Steven Ransom who has helped me to manage the entropy in my life. 1 love you. This project was supported in part by a grant from the Simmons College Fund for Research. I wish to thank Mme Danielle Coussot who allowed me to use the wonderful resources of the Centre Zola in Paris, and Mme Michele Sacquin, Chief Curator of the manuscripts department at the Richelieu branch of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France for permitting me to consult the original notebooks for Travail. Parts of Chapter 2 were first published as an article under the title "Souvarine's Vanishing Act: The Effacement of Anarchy in Zola's Germillaf' in Excavatio, XXI, nos 1 -2 (2006): 1 84-1 97. Material from the article is reproduced with permission of Dr. Anna Gural-Migdal, Editor of Excavatio. Parts of Chapter 3 were first published as an article under the title "The Anarchic Commune as World's Fair in Zola's Travail" i n Nineteenth Century French Studies, volume 36, nos 3 & 4 (Spring Summer 2008): 286-304. Material from the article is reproduced with pem1ission of the publisher, the University of Nebraska Press. Parts of the Epilogue appeared as a book review of Frigerio, Vittorio, ed. Emile 20la au pays de l 'al1archie. Grenoble, ELLUG [Editions litteraires et linguistiques de l'Universite de Grenoble], 2006 which appeared in Nineteenth-CentlilY French Studies, volume 36, nOs 3 & 4 (Spring-Summer 2008): 368-369. Material from the review is reproduced with permission of the publisher, the University of Nebraska Press. I am also indebted to the team of editors at Rodopi Press and the Faux Titre Series for their gracious assistance, especially to Professor Christa Stevens. The cover image, "Terminus," by Flavio Costantini, is reproduced with permission of the Kate Sharpley LibraI)', Stuart Christie and his website www.christiebooks.com. Thank you so much for allowing me to use this beautiful image gratis.

Introduction

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 9. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=9

Anarchy, Entropy, Naturalism

Throughout recent history, the ghost of terrorism has haunted modern democracies. At times, it appeared under the guise of a die hard Communist; at others, it donned a gray-hooded sweatshirt, camouflaged its stare behind large sunglasses, and was named the Unabomber. In its latest manifestation, it is a religious fanatic and comes from the Middle East. I n Belle Epoque France, it was a bomb throwing anarchist. The changing image of the terrorist underscores the very fact that it is historically grounded. Yet, even to advance the seemingly innocuous thesis that terrorism is socially constructed can backfire because public authorities try to present the phenomenon as an essential category by appealing to values of good and evil. Constructionist theories do not erase the reality of terrorism but rather analyze its structural function within a society through a study of competing ideologies as inscribed within discursive practices, from hegemonic to subversive. But what if terrorism I was precisely that which cannot be apprehended, that which cannot be configured symbolically inside a social structure? Another specter looms on the recent horizon of terrorism. Though hesitant at first to include any mention of the September 11th events i n the present study, I realized that its very absence would already con vey meaning; an auto-censorship that revealed the very resistance to analysis that I have posited at the heart of terrorism. This resistance comes to the fore in the articles that appeared immediately after the

I For the purposes of this book, I will use Philip Jenkins's definition of terrorism as "violent acts carried out nmdomly against nonmilitary, civilian targets, with the aim of inspiring fear in the wider population" (27).

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Explosive Narratives

attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. For instance, in "A creeping horror," published in the front page of The New York Times on September 12th, Kleinfield focuses on an oxymoronic "unfathomable realization" of a gaping hole, a void in the middle of the Twin Towers, which symbolically circumscribes the limits of our understanding faced with the sheer horror of the attack. Kleinfield writes:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 10. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=10

The horror arrived in episodic bursts of chilling disbelief, signified first by trembling floors, sharp emptions, cracked windows. There was the actual unfathomable realization of a gaping, flaming hole in first one of the tall towers, and then the same thing all over again in its tv"in ... . For severn I panic-stricken hours yesterday morning, people in Ulwer Munhallan witnessed fhe h,expressible. fhe incomprehensible. fhe 1II1I11I'nkable (Kleinlield lA, emphasis added).

Furthermore, the destruction of the Towers registered the loss of a landmark which provided meaning to the urban landscape of New York. In the same article, a transit worker is quoted as saying "You always look for those two buildings. You always know where you are when you see those two buildings. And now they're gone" (Kleinfield 7A). Terrorism defies our rational sense of the world and creates a semantic gap--what Kleinfield identifies as "the inexpressible, the incomprehensible, the unthinkable"-by posing as that which resists understanding, as that which is devoid of meaning. At the center of terror, the void or perhaps, the terror because of the void. The scope of this book is far more modest than an interpretation of the terrorist attacks of September 1 1 th. My goals are rather to study the literary function of the anarchist figure in three of Emile Zola�s novels: Germinal, Paris, and Travail. Yet, through my studies of the bomb throwing anarchists at the end of the 19th century, I could not help but to think of recent events in American history . In some ways, the manner in which we apprehend the violence of terrorism is informed by earlier tropes and images forged at that time period. In the novel Paris, the main character Pierre Froment witnesses the explosion of an anarchist bomb. Zola describes the event thus: -

Soudainement, ce fut Ie grondement de Ia foudre, une explosion formidable, comme si la terre s'ouvrait, comme si I'hotel foudroye s'am&anlissait. Toules les vitres des maisons voisines eelaterent, tombercnt avec un bruit retentissant de grCle. Une flamme d'enfer avait embmse un instant la rue, la poussiere et la fumee furcnt telles, que les quelques passants aveugles hurlerent d'cpouvantc, duns Ie saisissement de celte foumaise OU ils eroyaient culbuter... Et, d'abord, il [Pierre] ne distingua rien, la fumee acre noyait tout. Puis, il apen;ul les murs fendus, I 'etage superieur even Ire, Ie pave dHonce, seme de decombres. Dehors, Ie landau qui allait entrer, n'avait rien eu, ni un cheval atteint, ni meme la caisse

Anarchy. Entropy, Nalllralism

I I

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 11. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=11

craflCe par un projectile. Mais, ctalce sur Ie dos, la jeune fille, Ie pelit lrottin blond el joli gisait, Ie ventre ouvert, avee son fin visage intact, les yeux clairs, Ie sourire etonne, dans Ie coup de foudre de l a catastrophe ... (Paris, Zola 1 253).

The image of the gap identified as integral to the description of the September 1 1 th attacks also permeates Zola's fictional depiction "comme si la terre s'ouvrait, comme si l 'hatel foudroye s'aneantis sait"-a hole that will be echoed by the open stomach of the sole victim, "Ie ventre ouvert." Similarly, meaning is elusive-"... d'abord, il [Pierre] ne distingua rien, la fumee acre noyait tout"-and no possible explanation is given to the atrocity of the act. Rather, Zola appeals to the reader's pity to activate the condemnation of the perpetrator through an emotional rather than a rational reaction. By juxtaposing a newspaper article of the 2 1 st century with a fictional account of 1 9th century events, I do not intend to suggest that the events of 9/ 1 1 were in any way less real. However, such comparisons could begin to illuminate the way in which the discourse on terror functions symbolically within a given social structure. At the core of this comparison lies a fascination with violence. For Uri Eisenzweig, as he explains in his book Fictions de I'allarchisme, the type of violence deployed in modem day terrorism has its origins precisely in the so-called ere des attentats that shook the calm fa�ade of the Belle Epoque in France during the last decade of the nineteenth century. More than fifteen incidents committed between 1 892 and 1894 claimed the life of at least ten victims, including that of President Sadi Carnot (Maitron 2 1 4, 1975). Dynamite, discovered i n 1868, was used in the production of bombs destined to destroy /a Chambre des deputes or the church of la Madeleine (Sonn 237, 1989).2 These incidents were justified by anarchists under the strategy of la propagande par Ie fait or par Ie gesfe, random acts of violence perpetrated by individuals to bring about social change.3 For Eisen sweig, the unpredictable nature of this strategy serves as a defining characteristic of a new type of violence which becomes meaningless: "Role essentiel ... que celui de l' anarchisme fin de siecle dans l a

2 For a list of these anarchist attacks of the 189Os, please consult Table 1 on pages 1 2

and 13. 3 '"La propagande par Ie geste" was officially adopted in the 1881 Anarchist Congress held in London; "[ ...] Ie congr�s de Londres aboutissait [ ...] a la consecration officie1lc de la propagande par Ie fait comme moyen d'action Ie plus efficace pour cmancipcr lcs travaillcurs. II inaugurait par 13 I'ere des attcntats" (Maitron 1 1 5, 1975).

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Explosive Narratives

naissance du terrorisme .... Le mythe de l'anarchiste-poseur-de-bombes surgit bien au creur des attentars, mais mains pour expliquer !'evenement que pour en figurer, au contraire, la nature inexplica ble" ( 1 2). The opaqueness of terrorism allows Eisenzweig to draw a parallel between this new type of violence and the crisis of re presentation registered at the end of the century that would ultimately usher in a modernist aesthetic via the symbolist movement, what he terms "une convergence proprernent formelle entre la violence nouvelle qui se cristallise et la crise du realisme qui lui est contemporaine" ( 1 2). Tabl�

1

Chronology of Major Anarchist A ttacks in France,

Date

Culprit

Description

February 29'h, 1892

Unknown

Explosion at the residence of la Princesse de Sagan, rue Saint Dominique (Paris). No victims.

March l l 'h, 1 892

Ravachol (Fran�ois Claudius Koenigstcin)

Explosion of a building located on Saint-Germain 136, boulevard (Paris). No victims.

Unknown

Explosion of police headquarters located on the me Lobau (Paris). No victims.

Ravachol

Explosion of a building located on me de Clichy (Paris). No victims.

Theodule Meunier?

Explosion at the Very restaurant on boulevard Magenta (Paris). Two victims. This particular restaurant was chosen because it was here that Ravachol was arrested.

March 1 5'h, 1 892 Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 12. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=12

1892-1894

April 25'h, 1 892

13

Anarchy. Entropy, Nalllralism November 8 th, 1 892

Emile Henry?

A bomb explodes in the police headquaters located on the rue des Bons-Enfants after having been there the from transported headquarters of the Camleaux Mining Company on I'avcnuc de I'OpeTa (paris). Five victims. Emile Hen!)' will confess to this crime even though it was never proven that he was the culprit .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 13. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=13

November 1 3 th 1893

,

Leon-Jules LeHuthier

M . Georewitch, a Serbian minister visiting Paris, IS attacked by Leauthier with a knife on I'avenue de l'Opera (Paris). The wound is serious but not fatal.

December 9th, 1893

Auguste Vaillant

Explosion at the Palais-Bourbon (paris) as the Parliament was In session. No victims.

February 12'h, 1894

Emile \-lenry

Explosion at L'\-lotel Tenninus near the Saint-Lazare train station (Paris). One victim and twenty wounded.

February 20th , 1 894

Pauwcls?

Explosion at 20, faubourg Saint Jacques (Paris). One victim.

February 20'\ 1894

Pauwels?

Bomb is neutralized before it explodes on rue Saint-Martin (Paris).

March 1 5th, 1 894

Pauwels

At the entrance of la Madeleine church (Paris), the bomb kills the perpetrator of the act.

Apri l 4'h , 1 894

Louis Matha?

Explosion at the Foyot Restaurant, rue de Conde (Paris). The symbolist poet, Laurent Tailhade loses an eye because of it No victims. .

May 22nd, 1894 June 24 'h, 1894

Unknown

Bomb explodes on the KlCber (Paris). No victims.

avenue

Unknown

Bomb explodes on the avenue Nicl (Paris). No victims.

Santo Jeronimo Caserio (Italian anarchist)

Assassination of the President of the Republic, Sadi Carnol (Lyon).

14

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 14. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=14

The present study takes Eisenzweig's insight as a point of departure and builds upon the substantial amount of recent scholarship which has focused on the particular nexus linking anarchy and the arts.4 These studies have done much to rehabilitate the forgotten anarchist as a powerful and influential revolutionary force in nine teenth-century Europe. Most of these critics preface their writings by alluding to the effacement of anarchy from the annals of history. Indeed, Roger Shattuck had already claimed in The Banquet Years that anarchism was "the most turbulent force of all" during the Belle Epoque, but that it "is almost forgotten" (20). In a similar fashion, Leighten explains in her Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso and Anarchism, 1897-1914, that "The anarchist vision as a serious subject of debate and anarchism versus socialism as a live issue have passed out of view, with the odd result that socialism is now popularly conceived as the only revolutionary movement to have risen in the nineteenth century. That is not true [ ...J" (xv). Thanks to the many studies dedicated to the subject, the anarchist has been restored as a major figure of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, these critical studies have challenged stereotypical notions of the modernistS writer as either reactionary or apolitical6 by

4 Among the most important studies in this category, I would cite the following; Vittorio Frigerio's Emile Zola all pays de I'Anarchie (2006); Uri Eisenzweig's Fictions de {'(/narchisme (2001); Alain Pessin's and Patrice Terrone's (eds,) Litleraillre et anarchie (1998); Arthur F. Redding's Raids on HI/mml Consciou�'neJ:j: Writing, Anarchism, and Violence (1998); David Weir's Anarchy & Culture: The Aesthetic Politics of Modernism (1997); Alexander Varias's Paris and the Anarchists: Aesthetes alld Subversives During the Fill de SiJcle (1996); John G. Hutton's Neo Impressionism alld the Search for Solid Ground: Art. Science, and Anarchism ill Fi/! de-Sieele France (1994); Carol Vanderveer Hamilton's dissertation, "Dynamite: Anarchy as Modernist Aesthetic" (1993); Patricia Lcighten's Re-Ordering the Universe: Picasso alld Anarchism, 1897-1914 (1989); Richard D. Sonn's Allarchism and Cllltural Politics ill Fill de Sieele France (\989); Joan Ungersma Halperin's Felix FelleOIl: Aesthete & Allarchist ill Fill-de-Siecle Paris (1988). See also the 1995 issue of the journal Modernism/Modernity dedicated to the question of anarchy, 5 Modernism is obviously a difficult ternl to define; I use it loosely here to mean the aesthetic movement that challenged the mimetic project of the realists and naturalists at the end of the nineteenth century. I agree with Peter Nicholls's assertion that the Symbolist movement announces the modernist aesthetic. See Modernisms, Chapter 2, "Breaking the Rules: Symbolism in France" (pp. 24-41). 6 David Weir states: (...J modernism is often conceived, with I 'art pour I'arl as its background, as an apolitical avant-garde movement, one that reacted against both conservative and progressive politics" ( 1 60). "

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 15. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=15

locating the politics of modernism within anarchist ideals, Since anarchy was the most visible opposition force to the Third Republic,7 many artists claimed it as an ally in combating the bourgeois economic system by presenting their aesthetic products as examples of propaganda by the deed. Furthermore, the metaphor of the bomb gained much currency as it was loosely applied to any work that shocked bourgeois sensitivity.s In other words, by breaking the conventions of literary tradition, the poets and artists were akin to bomb-throwing anarchists: "Anarchism served not only to unsettle the political smugness of the Third Republic, but also to challenge any fonnulated aesthetic. [. . . J By acting on their ideas, the anarchist 'martyrs' inspired artists to demonstrate as boldly" (Shattuck 22). This type of argument allows leighten to describe Picasso's ales Demoiselles d' Avignon" as an example of propaganda by the deed: "[ ... ] Picasso [ .. . J closed his first Parisian phase with an explosive act-and seen as such by his contemporaries-of la propagande par Ie fait: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (74). In a different vein, Sonn highlights the individualist ethos of the anarchists as influential in the artistic world when he writes: "As a self-conscious avant-garde, these artists [here, the symbolist poets] sought to conjoin aesthetic and political radicalism without hampering the autonomy of either. Anarchism seemed to many the only possible avenue for political engagement and artistic freedom" (Sonn 1 4 1 , 1989).9 He thus draws

7 As Eugene Weber explains in his Frallce Fill de Siec/e: "Beginning in the I 880s, the most forceful and visible section of the extreme Left was also the least organized: anarchism" ( 1 15). 8 Richard Sonn's Anarchism and ClIlllirol Polilics in Fill de Siecle Frallce comains many anecdotes on this topic. He quotes Adolphe Rett6, for example, referring to Rimbaud's upside-down sonnet as "the first bomb" that exploded "in the temple of the Rule" (205). In a similar vein, he quotes Pierre Quillard: "'Good literature is an eminent fonn of propaganda by the deed'" (215). Mallanne, during the famous 1 894 Proces de Trente which put on trial thirty anarchists, came to Felix Feneon's defense and stated: "Certainly there were not any better detonators for Feneon than his articles. And I do not think that one can use a more effective weapon than literature" (Sonn 255, 1989). See especially Chapter 8, "Literary Anarchism: The Aesthe ticization of Politics" and Chapter 9, "Symbolic Violence." 9 Sonn reminds his readers that "When contemporary Symbolist critics such as Remy de Gourmont virtually defined Symbolism as anarchist poetics, they were referring not to Ih� lev�1 of engagem�nt but to Ih� J�gree to which the poet's semiotic project at fonnal, semantic, and pragmatic levels was congment with anarchist ideals" (212, 1989).

16

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on the autonomy of the individual revered by the anarchist to explain the highly subjective element of modernist art. Other critics have evoked the idealized artisan societies advocated by anarchists in their studies. Hutton has successfully demonstrated the impact of such theses on the paintings of the Neo-Impressionists, supporters of anar chism and allies of the prominent fin de siecle anarchist, Felix FeneOn.lO Of Signac's 1896 painting «Temps d'harmonie," Hutton writes: Signac labored to combine in one image virtually ev ery facet of the anarchist age d'or: little or nothing was omitted from the writings of Kropotkin or Jean Gmve on the subject, from amour libre to the universality of arl, from the need for leisure to the call for decentralized industry no longer at war with nature (137).

Even more ambitiously, critics have compared the anarchists' federal model with the modernists' fragmentary aesthetic. David Weir writes on this account:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 16. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=16

The argument is simply that much of modernist art is consistent with the politics of anarchism, and that this consistency extends into the fonn of the work itself. [. . .] The way the various units of composition in the literary work dissociate from the whole and assume a sepamte, autonomous existence is structumlly analogous to the decentralized, federated fonn of society that Proudhon proposed ( 1 60, 188).

In his model, the fonn of the work of art carries political meaning by contesting traditional artistic conventions. These four elements, terror ism, individualism, idealism, and federalism, have been evoked by different critics to establish a link between anarchy and fin de siecle art currents. Although 1 am indebted to the ground-breaking studies of these critics, my own project emerges from a notable absence in them. Focusing solely on the symbolist and modernist aesthetic, these critics have failed to give a fair treatment to the links that unite the realist paradigm to anarchy by deeming the former irreconcilable with anarchist tenets. I I Yet, many proto-modern novelists were fascinated 10 On this note, Herbert writes: "[ ... J there was a striking unanimity among the leading French nco-impressionists in their profession of socialist anarchism: Camille Pissarro and his son Lucien, Signac, Seumt, Luce, Angrand, Cross, Van Rysselberghe were all sympathetic to this tendency [ . ..J" (184). 1 1 Richard Sonn, for example, states: "The novels of Zula, by dwelling on con temporary society, inevitably affirmed the status quo; in contrast, every Symbolist

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 17. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=17

by the question of anarchy, including Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Henry James and Emile Zola, the focus of this particular study.12 The fact that so many realist novelists actually treated the question of anarchy should alert us to a more significant relationship between these two seemingly antithetical figures than was previously thought. David Weir, however, contends that realist narratives could not effectively incorporate anarchist elements: "The argument is often made that the novel is the cultural form par excellence for the expression of day-to-day experience in the capitalist nation-state, and it very well may be that the ideological influences that have shaped the novel into its traditional realist form make it an inappropriate medium for the cultural expression of anarchism" (87-8). For Weir, the problem lies in the way that realist and naturalist narratives are put together, favoring a coherent plot at the expense of the fragmentation that he deems a necessary requirement for anarchist politics to be integrated into a work of art: "[ ... ] the scientific dictates of naturalism run counter to the aims of revolutionary politics. [... J The naturalist novel [... J cannot include any concrete efforts toward refonnation as part of its narrative as the narrative itself is governed by the deterministic 'laws' it describes" (63).13 In a similar vein, Eisenzweig

poem was a tiny utopia, an experiment in the absolute" (215, 1989). Shattuck neglects the realists all together by treating only four artists of the fin de sieele: Rousseau, Satie, Jarry and Apollinaire. Leighten devotes her whole study to Picasso's paintings. Eugenia Herbert docs dedicate a whole chapter of her study to the naturalists and realists (Chapter 5), but she concentrates solely on their depiction of social themes akin to traditional propaganda methods and docs not discuss the way that anarchy affected their aesthetic practices. 12 Sec Dostoyevsky's The Possessed, Turgenev's Fa/ hers and SOliS and Rudin, and Henry James's The Princess Cas(llllassillla. Extending into the twentieth century, one could include in this list Conrad's The Secret Agel/t, Chesterton's The Mal/ who was Thursday and Gide's Les Faux-monnayellrs (Hamilton 7). On this topic, Redding has insightful1y stated in "The Dream Life of Political Violence: Georges Sorel, Emma Goldman, and the Modem Imagination": "The bomb-throwing anarchist functions [ ...] as the unspeakable object of dread in early modernist and premodernist fiction" (2). 13 Weir uses as an example James's The Princess CasGmGssimG and Turgenev's Rudill. Of the latter, he states: "Turgenev's pessimistic belief that environment and heredity arc immutable forces therefore works against the politics of the novel, making Rudin's death at the end of it a meaningless sacrifice that is fully consonant with natumlism. This will not be the only instance when the politics of anarchism proves to be incompatible with a traditional cultuml form [...], which only makes the contrary point that one day the old forms will not suffice for the artist with anarchist sympathies" (58).

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highlights the incompatible nature between anarchy and realism, arguing that the totalizing vision of a naturalist scope runs counter to a phenomenon (anarchism) which by its nature resisted representation. Addressing Zola's reticence towards anarchy, Eisenzweig writes: [ . .] n'cst-cc pas au fond la validitc du roman lui-mcmc en tant qlle forme s'articulant autour d'un certain ordre temporel, spolial el psychologiquc qui est mise en question par la nature n£"Ccssairement spomdique, dcplaccc, imprcvisiblc de ]'evenement specifiquement terroristc ? Et avec la clarte explicative de son ambition totalisatrice, n'est-ce pas la raison d'etre meme du roman (realiste) qui se voit subvertie par eel acte dont la realitc (c'est-a-dire I'efficacitc) mcme dccoule de sa "bCtise," c'est-a-dire de son opacite, de son impenetrabilite (212213, emphasis added). .

.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 18. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=18

.

He goes on to identify a specific formal difficulty for the realist aesthetic to apprehend terrorism in general: "I 'existence d'une difficulte specifiquement romanesque d'apprehender la violence nou velle, de la comprendre, de la mettre en recit" (213). For Eisenzweig, then, anarchism traces the limit of that which can be represented in a realist mode, an enigma which resists understanding and challenges the positivist world-view of a transparent reality. 14 The axiom which posits anarchy and realism as mutually exclusive is based on three assumptions that should be questioned. First, it does not challenge the theoretical framework of the naturalist genre, assuming that deterministic laws do in fact dictate narrative events. The naturalist "genre" was difficult to define and most critics have remarked on the heterogeneous nature of the movement i n France,15 let alone i n different national traditions. Furthermore, the deterministic plot that excludes fragmentation from narrative form rests at the level of the author's intentions and not necessarily at the level of practice. On the contrary, using the concept of entropy, I will

14 Redding has also pointed out this incompatibility: "The political violence represented in the figure of the anarchist is perpetually elusive and evanescent, eluding any 'molar' configuration by which it might be packaged, contained, and defused" (2). In other words, the "political violence" of the terrorist resists narrative strategies of reprcscntation-"any 'molar' configuration," which I take to mean any set pre-arranged paltern-that might II)' to neutralize it. 15 See, for example, Baguley's Natllralist Fictioll: The Elltropic Visioll, Chapter I , "Histories," especially pp. 2 1 and 27.

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show that Zola's Germinal includes passages that challenge the narrative coherence that Weir treats as a given.16 Second, it assumes that the depiction of reality cannot have re volutionary consequences. Weir concedes nevertheless that showing "what is" carries political meaning when he writes: "It is [... 1 true that nahlralist writers, at least those who follow the model of Zola most closely, set their fictional experiments in motion to show just how powerfully oppressive present society is, and there is no mistaking the moral and political intent of such a presentation" (63). Yet, he states that naruralist novels "cannot include any concrete efforts toward reformation" (63).17 By dissociating realism from anarchy, Weir and Eisenzweig neglect the earlier collaborations of artists and anarchists: Courbet, deemed the first realist painter, was engaged in anarchist politics and formed a long lasting relationship with Proudhon, the father of French anarchy. Furthermore, Proudhon exalted realism as a revolutionary poetics; he writes in his posthumously published aesthetic treatise, Du Principe de I 'art et de sa destination sociale: Pcindre les hommes dans la sinccritc de leur nature et de leurs habitudes, dans leurs travaux, dans I'accomplissement de leurs fonctions civiques et domestiques, avec leur physionomie actuelle, surtout sans pose; les surprcndre, pour ainsi dire, dans Ie deshabille de leurs consciences, non simplement pour Ie plaisir de miller, mais eomme but d'education generale et a titre d'a vertisscment esthetique: tel me para lt etre, a moi, Ie vrai point de depart de I'art modemc

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 19. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=19

(203).

The mimetic project is conveyed in this passage by the phrases "sincerite de leur nature" and "surtout sans pose" which challenge the artifice of representation. Furthermore, the depiction of reality has moral implications as the phrase "comme but d'education" illustrates. In its formative years, the realist movement was a privileged site of subversive politics contesting bourgeois standards. As a consequence, 16 We could also cite the master of realism Gustave Flaubert's aesthelic as rehearsing Ihis tension between an integrated work of art and its fragmentary potentiality, especially in a novel like L 'Education 5enlimentale. 1 7 The terroriSI Emile Henry, however, docs mention Emile lola's naruraliSI novel Germinal during his trial: "At his trial he referred to the character of Souvarine from Zola's novel Germinal and quoted his statement that 'all arguments about the future are criminal because they hinder pure and simple destruction and hamper the march of the revulutiun.' The newspaper L 'Ecfair reported that while awaiting trial, Henry read [ . . .J Germinal, in which he had underlined the passage, 'Begin then by lettin g me blow up the prison where you perish'" (Sonn 245, 1989).

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the government of Napoleon III persecuted such works with vehemence, the 1 857 trial against Flaubert's Madame BOVGfY being one of the most notable cases: 1 8 A propos de Madame BOWII)" Ie tribunal fait valoir "qu'il n'est pas permis, SOliS pretexlc de peinture de caractcre Oll de cQuteur locale, de rcproduirc dans leurs ccarls les faits, dits ct gcstes des pcrsonnages qu'un ecrivain s'es! donne mission de peindre; qu'un pareil systeme, applique aux reuvres de ['esprit aussi bien qu'aux productions des beaux-arts, conduirait a un 1"I?alisme qui serait la negation du beau et du bon, [. ] realisme vulgairc et sauven! choquant" (Leclerc 50, ..

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 20. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=20

emphasis added),

The word "realism" obviously had political implications that contem porary critics of anarchy and the arts have tended to minimize. I will show that the anarchist characters in Zola's texts enrich the political message of his novels by providing a radical questioning of the bourgeois economic system. Even though most of the anarchist characters go through a "'reeducation" whereby they abandon their violent critiques of society or are even recuperated by the dominant discourse, their mere presence serves as a revolutionary voice in these works. Finally, Weir assumes that anarchist politics are necessarily sub versive and that this particular characteristic remains intact when transposed from the political to the cultural field. The analogy bctwcen the federated, decentralized state advocated by the anarchists and the fragmented aesthetic of modemism, however, rests only at the level of structural similarity, but not of intent. Weir himself confesses that "no definitive proof for the argument that anarchism takes aesthetic form with modernism can be offered" ( 1 65). While the claim that the two are "structurally homologous" ( 1 65) might be interesting, it does not advance the argument for an integrated theory of anarchy and literature. Furthermore, Weir links the argument for a federated society as expressed in the fragmented work of art to theories of

18 Yves Leclerc, in his Crimes ecrits: La litteralllre en proces all XiXe siixle, affirms that the two major waves of trials against literature in the nineteenth century-those of the late 50s and those of the early 80s---correspond to important moments in the history of realism: "Historiquement, les deux vagues principales de prod�s correspondent avec I'emergence du realisme au debut du second Empire, puis avec I'affirmation th('Orique du naturalisme dans les annces 1880" (50). Sec also Martino's classic study, Le Roman rl!alisfe SOliS Ie Second Empire, especially Chapter IV, "La Campagne realiste," pp. 99-107.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 21. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=21

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egoism: " As the art of satisfaction, egoism, and fragmentation, mod ernist art is also the aesthetic realization of anarchist politics" ( 1 69). Yet, the society envisioned by many anarchists who advocated for a federated state was on the contrary one of mumal cooperation between individuals, not one of egoism. '9 In fact, this particular anarchist vision was suffused with romantic elements that made some of its tenets reactionary in nature and at odds with contemporary capitalist development. The fragmentary politics of the anarchists transposed into a modernist aesthetic would therefore not be revolutionary in the sense that Weir ascribes to it, but rather a flight from the vicissitudes of the historical in a utopian mode. My project thus emerges from the silence of most critics on the question of realism and anarchy. To begin an investigation into this vast field, I propose to take as case-studies three novels written by Emile Zola: Germinal (1 885), Paris ( 1 898), and Travail ( 1 90 1 ). The example of Zola imposes itself for several reasons. First, as the most important theorist of the naturalist movement and its most prominent figure in fin de sie'Cie France, Zola best represents the tradition of the realist paradigm during this time period, Furthermore, his depictions of contemporary society serve as a testimony to different literary representations of the anarchist. I would argue that these novels form a coherent trilogy that traces Zola's long-life interest in anarchy and his evolving views on this particular question. The three main anarchist characters in these novels, Souvarine in Germinal, Guillaume Froment in Paris, and Lange in Travail, serve as an important thread to tie the works together. Finally, these novels were written at the same time as the emergence of a modernist aesthetic favored by the critics cited

1 9 On this point, Todd May states: "The core of much of the anarchist project is the assumption, first, that human beings have a nature or essence; and, s�ond, that that essence is good or benign, in the sense that it possesses the chamcteristics that enable one to live justly with others in society. [ ...] Anarchism, then, is imbued with a type of essentialism or naturalism that fonns the foundation of its thought" (63). For this very reason, Kropotkin tries to disproof DalWinian social theories by drawing examples from history in which spontaneous cooperation occurs among living beings. See in particular MUll/al Aid in The Esselltial Kropotkin. The difference between analogous fragmented structures but different political intent is best summarized by Richard Sonn when he writes: "The Symbolists' relation to anarchism was doubly determined by their perception of homologies between their art and elements of anarchist ideology, and by the sense of opposition they felt between their tmnscendenl:Jl pretensions and the anarchists' social concerns" (220, 1989).

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above. They are thus useful in demonstrating how a different aesthetic practice responds to the anarchist question. Before turning to an analysis of these novels, however, a precise definition of the three terms that frame my argument-anarchy, entropy, naturalism-is in order.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 22. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=22

Anarchy

This study treats the literary representations of political anarchists in three of Zola's novels. I do not intend, therefore, to give a detailed account of the history of anarchy in France nor to dwell at length in the often misunderstood and contradictory politics of anarchism. 20 As my analysis of the novels reveals, 201a was morc interested in anarchy for its possible narrative effects than in the actual theories of this polit ical movement. Nevertheless, two distinct and conflicting images of the anarchist are represented in these novels, the idealist and the ter rorist, which correspond to the tension within anarchist dogma between its utopian impulses of fraternal hannony and its individualist strain centered on egoism. Anarchism as a viable political project did not come into being until the mid-nineteenth century.21 The earliest proponent of anarchy in France was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon whose theories are generally considered a reaction to the centralization of capital characteristic of the early phases of industrial development during the nineteenth century. To oppose these economic forces, he advances a federated model in which individuals are free to enter into contractual arrange ments with each other: J'ai dit, en faisant la critique gcncrale du Gouvernement, que si Ie contrat pouvait resoudre une seule question d'interet entre deux individus, il pouvait resoudre de mcme toutes cellcs qui surgisscnl cntre dcs millions: d'ou il suit quc Ic problcmc

20

For readers interested in the history of French anarchism, I recommend Jean Maitron's definitive study on this particular question entitled Le MOllvement anarcitisle ell France (1 975). 21 As Sonn explains: "The rise of modem anarchism was directly related to the concurrent rise of nationalism, in particular the authoritarian mass nationalism prevalent in Europe after 1848. [ ... ] anarchism did not take shape until the years between 1848 and 187 1 " (5, 1992).

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de l'ordre dans la societe cst des millions de fois plus aise a attaquer par voie de transaction que par voie d'autorite (Proudhon 244, 1924).22

The contract as the basis of social interactions advocates a bartering system akin to common practices in artisan milieux. In fact, Proud hon's social vision of federalism was intended to protect the petty bourgeois economic position threatened by the advance of industrial machinery:23 Proudhon idealized work in a small-scale peasant or artisanal setting, with small groups freely exchanging goods and services and leading simple and austere lives. TIle workshop, not the legislature, banks, or industrial mill, would be the basis of society, morally as well as economically. Natural, affective units of family and co-workers would replace impersonal and bureaucratic structures.

The polity would be local and decentralized [ ... ] (Sonn 10, 1989).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 23. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=23

The anarchists' idealization of the artisan mode of life has justified the descriptions of their tenets as "romantic regress" (Weir 14), a rejection of the present state of society infused with a strong dose of utopian wish-fantasy for a better future. 24 The harmonious society composed

22 It must be noted that Kropotkin embraced Proudhon's model after denouncing the role of propaganda by the deed (Maitron 260, 1 975). [n his L 'Anarchie, sa philosophie, SOli ideal, he writes: "Aujourd'hui seulement, depuis vingt ans a peine, nous commem;ons a reconquerir, par la lutte, par la rCvolte, quelques amorces du droit d'association, qui fut librement pratique par les artisans et les cultivateurs du sol a travers tout Ie moyen-age. Et quelle est la tendance qui domine deja dans la vie des nations civilisees? N'est-ce pas celIe de s'unir, de s'associer, de se consulter en mille et mille societes libres pour la satisfaction de tous les besoins multiples de l'homme civilise" (35)? [t is easy to recognize the influence of Proudhon in this ideal of millions of associations. We know that Zola had read this treatise by Kropotkin while preparing Paris, where this particular anarchist vision is ascribed to Gui[laume Fromen!. 23 On this point, Ansart states: "Tout Ie contexte de rapports personnels et connais sables qui entourait Ie travail artisan tend a disparaitre a mesure de l'extension des entreprises capitalistes" (42-3). in fact, Proudhon's theories were largely influenced from his first-hand experience with the early I 830s silk workers' rebellion in Lyons: "[ ...] sa [de Proudhon] thoorisation correspond Ie plus adequatement a la pratique des canuts Iyonnais" (239). 24 A word about the differences between the anarchist and the Marxist vision is war ranted at this juncture. Whereas the anarchist refused the mechanization of industrial development and its concomiant t concentration of capital, the Marxist thought that this process was vital in the ultimate demise or capitalist structures: Capitalist production, by collecting the population in great centres [sic], and causing an ever increasing preponderance of town population [... ] concentrates the historical motive "

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 24. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=24

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of a collection of artisans makes repeated appearances in Zola�s novels, especially in Paris and Travail. The incorporation of these theses into the narrative ultimately has dire consequences for the nat uralist novel, however, as it effectively annuls realist practices to replace them within a utopian tradition. Zola also incorporates the popular image of the violent terrorist associated with the '''individualist'' branch of anarchy into his novels. In fact, Eisenzweig identifies the bomb-thrower as the main figure i n Zola's anarchist fantasies: " ... I e fait est que pour l'ecrivain [Zola], c'est bien 13 question de 13 violence, fantasmatique au non, peu i m porte, qui prime, !orsqu'il s'agit de !'anarchisme" (21 0). This strain was closely related to nihilism and its most important sources were the writings of Stimer and Nietzsche. It advocated an extreme type of individualism and violence to bring about social change. The focus of its revolutionary actions was the destruction of existing social structures rather than the foundation of a new society. Bakunin figures prominently in this branch of anarchy and his taste for violent means i s highlighted in his "Catechism of a Revolutionary" where he asserts that any action necessary to bring about revolution is necessarily positive in ethical terms (Sonn 33, 1 992). Propaganda by the deed was thus the favorite political strategy for this group and its activities reached an apogee with the terrorist attacks of the 1 880s and 1 890s, including the 1 8 8 1 assassination of the Russian tsar Alexander II and the bombings that terrorized Parisian society in the years 1 892-94. Eisenzweig presents an original argument to reconcile these divergent visions of anarchy when he claims that both arc rooted in a

power of society" (Tucker 4 1 6). As a consequence of the increased centralization that follows from ncw technological brcakthroughs, the social classes are finally able to separatc into two distinct camps. Again, according to Marx, the rcvolution of 1848 swept away all the smaller parties that vied for control of the working classes and consolidated the proletariat, poised against its sole enemy, the bourgeois class: " What it [the proletariat] won was the terwin for the fight for its revolutionary emancipation, but by no means this emancipation itself' (Tucker 587). He locates the first "modem" revolution, stripped of all its ancillary classes (the peasants and the petty bourgeoisie) in the episode of the Junc insurrcction: Thcy [the workcrs] answcred on Junc 22 with the tremcndous insurrection in which thc first great battlc was fought bctwecn the nyo classes that split modem society" (Tucker 589). By driving social divisions to their utmost extreme, the social revolution was ready to be set in motion, leading to the inevitable death of the bourgl.!ois order. In Marx's scheme, thus, thl.! concentration of capital is of utmost importance since it brings about the very conditions of the revolution. "

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radical rejection of representation and therefore, of the transparency of language inherited from the Enlightenment and adopted by the positivist sciences of the 1 9th century. Eisenzweig writes: "'Au principe de la conception proudhonienne du contrat social-en quelque sorte, done, au cceur du discours anarchiste tout entier-il y a Ie rejet de la fonction proprement symbolique, effectivement rHerentielle du langage" ( 1 1 5). This crisis is responsible for an epistemological shift in which words cease to denote and therefore actions are needed to create meaning: [ ...] l'anticipation tcrrorisec de bombcs a venir dCcoule de ce que dorenavant sc con�oit, avec anxiete, avec horrcur meme, la possibilite qu'cffectivcment, il ' ' (e C'IIe li ' ' " [ '" J 1 a hanh� I la �L ll' re" SI' 1'on Velll "1 lilI (Ire, �I. mhe expnme 011 (1II mom::) correspond a une hantise plus abstraite, plus diffuse, concernant I 'cventualitc d'une impuissance du langagc--ce langage dont la force denolative, prcciscment nice par cette bombe pen;:ue comme acte de propagande, conditionne dcsonnais tant de savoir et d'idcntitc. [ . ..] L'horreur des attentats, ou Ie refoulement de cette menace que serait I'eventualite que la rcalitc des choses cchappe aux mots ( 1 55). '

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''

Eisenzweig's model is very useful since it places at the core of the an archy/literature nexus the problem of language. Rather than explaining the anarchy of modernism as a result of a fragmented aesthetic fonn mimicking a political federated state, it identifies the wider culrural crisis of representation registered at the end of the 19th century as the foundation for this particular alliance. I want to seize on this insight and demonstrate that anarchy was already a necessary component of naruralism as Zola practiced it even before the modernist rum: not incompatible, then, but tacitly co-operative. For the purposes of this study, anarchy will thus be invoked as correlative to this crisis of representation that Eisenzweig has identified and that I want to nuance further by appealing to the notion of entropy. Entropy

Offhand, it might seem incongruous to suggest a relationship between a scientific term and a political one as it applies to literature. Yet, the concept of entropy will help me bridge the seemingly antithetical nature of naturalism on the one hand and political violence on the other. First conceptualized in 1 824 by the engineer Sadi Camot, entropy was tied to the application of thermodynamics-the motive

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power of fire-in industrial processes. Originally, thus, entropy emerged as a concomitant to capitalism in the early nineteenth century and it referred to an amount of useful energy that necessarily got lost in any transfonnation of heat into work25 thereby circumscribing the limits of production. 26 From its industrial roots, entropy was quickly redefined in terms of a catastrophic future, proof that the universe was in constant decay and that an imminent "heat death" would bring end to life on earthY Given i ts imp ortance in the cultural context of the 1 9lh century, i t should come as no surprise that entropy found its way into the l iterary representations of the epoch and, especially, the works of Zola. For instance, Jacques Noiray has shown in Le Romancier et fa machine: L 'image de fa machine dans Ie roman jranr;ais (/850-1900): I, L 'Univers d 'Emi/e Zo/a ( 1 98 1 ) the importance of entropy for the portrayal of industrial ma ch inery in h is novels: "[ J tout se passe comme si I'imagination de Zola rattachait toutes les machines auxquelles elle s'interesse a un modele unique, Ie plus repandu a son epoque, celui de la machine it vapeur, en privilegiant dans celle-ci I'element Ie plus important, la chaudiere" (323). The emphasis on this type of machine leads to the inevitable catastrophe so characteristic of Zola's narratives: "Tout se passe done comm e si I'explosion apparaissait, a I 'horizon de toute vie mecanique, comme la catastrophe ...

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 26. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=26

neccssairc, Ie destin mcmc de la machine" (328). Other literary critics and cultural historians have used the concept of entropy i n metaphorical ways, demonstrating that Zola's naturalist texts, though

25 See in particular Sadi Carnol's own scientific treatise entitled Reflexiolls sur la puissallce morrice dll foil et Sill' les machilles propres a dive/opper cette puissallce, especially p. 1 9 . 26 As Buchner explains in his scientific treatise, Lumiere er vie (1 883): "Puisque de ceue maniere une perte continuelle de chaleur se produit, puisqu'a chaque transformation de l'energie il reste un petit excedent de calorique, qui ne pcut eire convcrti inversement, ce deficit, qui s'accroit tOtuours, dans Ie grand bilan de la nature, doit devorer finalement Ie capital tout entier" (223, emphasis added). 27 Biichner states: "Scion toute vraisemblance, la somme d'energic, intacle encore, se convert ira, elle aussi, en chaleur sous I'influence de cet incessant mouvement de lransformation. Alors, I'univers d'aujourd'hui aura atteint Ie terme de sa carriere, el un univers nouveau surgira a sa place" ( 1 55). In The Human Molar: Energy. Faligue. alld Ihe Origills ofModemity, Anson Rabinbach puis it thus: "The irreversible decline in force, which scientists and social philosophers had observed in entropy, led to grim predictions of the world's imminent demise-a 'heat death,' extinguishing all life in an abrupt, ehilly end " (6).

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highly constructed, show signs of the very "fatigue" and "exhaus tion" characteristic of the second law of thermodynamics.28 In FelIX et signaux de brume: 201a, the necessary reference for this type of srudy, Michel Serres asserts: "Rien ne dit mieux que les Rougon-Macquart

l 'l�crasement, Ie gaspillage, la dissemination, la perte, I'irreversible jusant vers la mort-desordre; la decheance, I'epuisement, la degene rescence" (78). Peter Brooks uses the image of entropy as a narrative matrix, drawing an analogy between p l ot development and en tropic decay : "Ce qui m'interesse surtout, c'est Ie role de la machine et de I ' e nergie qU'elle produit en tant que representation, mise-en-abyme, de ce qui motive et fait avancer Ie recit" (Romantisme, page 98, 1 984). In a different vein, Prendergast has successfully used the concept of entropy to unmask points in 20la ' s narratives in which the naturalist's power to depict the real falters:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 27. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=27

Matter in 2ola's world, and above all in 2ola's city, is always at risk of exceeding the effort of the writing to subjugate it; translated into the tenns of the thermodynamic analogy, the text is a kind of literary 'machinc a vapeur' for gcncrating signs but whose consequence more oftcn than not is a cenain vaporization of the sign, a loss of focus, a blur akin to the 'brume' which so often hangs over Zola's Paris. Clarity of representation, otherwise so fundamental to Zola's umhmaking [. . .] is also problematic; and onen we are len not with the sense of an achieved descriptive plenitude but with the sense of an emptiness, a blank at the heart of the city (72).

These textual moments that "vaporize the sign" and threaten narrative coherence are important to the link that I propose between realism and anarchy. Here I question the claim that naturalism, as opposed to modernism, could not include a fragmented aesthetic. Rather than an antithetical relationship between the two, entropy

serves as a linking element between realism and modernism, demon strating that the depiction of the real was already threatened by dissolution into the fragm entary . Furthermore, entropy and anarchy share certain salient characteristics. First, they both point towards an explosive horizon, be it through the bomb itsel f or through the

collapse of industrial processes. Second, both instill horror in the 1 9 th

28

See also Laurent Dispot's analysis of the French Revolution using the thermo dynamic model in L(I Machine a Terrell": De ta Revotulioll ji'wlf;aise all terrorisme, ( 1 978). Alsu, Pierre Saint-Amano's "Hot Terror: Qllatrevingt-treize" in Substallce: Special Issue, Reading Violence (1998), in whieh he offers an original reading of Hugo's Qllatrel'ingl-treize through the prism of entropy.

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century imagination as they come to be associated with apocalyptic myths of destruction. And finally, they inhabit the margins of rep resentation, eroding the contours of reality and questioning the foundation of a positivist science. The "emptiness" created by entropy is echoed by the"void" resulting from the explosions of bombs: The anarchist explosion could be analyzed as a radical symbol of the Naturalists' Emropic Vision which provides the title for David Bagu1cy's exemplary slUdy of Naturalist fiction, The bomb produces an extremely violent dispersal of matter and release of energy, and as such a particularly conspicuous form of I:lllrupy (Whitt: 169, 1999).

Structurally, then, the anarchist's bomb and entropic dissolution serve to map the limits of naturalist representation.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 28. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=28

Naturalism

The thorny question of naturalism as opposed to realism has been a favorite line of inquiry among critics of nineteenth century literature. Traditionally, naturalism has been judged an extension of the realist project, continuing the former's '''myth of the direct representation of an inexhaustibly rich, complex, observable reality of sintations, people and sites to be depicted like some vast Balzacian enterprise" (Baguley 7, 1 990). Zola's novels, at least through the end of Les ROl/gon Macquart series, fall within this will to encompass the real through a mimetic project: The novelist's criticism and theoretical essays [ ... ] contain frequent assertions of his fundamental belief in the mimetic purpose of literature, in a realist aesthetic [ ... ]. The aim [of Zola's novels] is to abolish all generic attachments, to still the imagination, to represent reality itself without mediation (Baguley 54, 1 990).

To distinguish his own project from the realists, however, Zola appeals to scientific theories that authenticate naturalism as an "objective" field. Comparing his works to those of Balzac, Zola writes: "Mon a:uvre sera moins sociale que scientifique" (\ 736, Zola V). The most important, and unfortunate, piece in which Zola exposes his scientific theories is undoubtedly the treatise entitled "Le Roman experimental." Following Claude Bernard's scientitic method, Zola claims: "Un meme detenninisme doir regir 1a pierre des chemins et Ie cerveau d e l'homme. [... ] Tout ce qu'on peut dire, c'est qu'il y a un determinisme absolu pour tous les phenomenes humains" ( \ 5-17). The role of literature, according to this scheme, is to unmask these laws at work through an acute observation of the social sphere; yet, the model

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 29. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=29

Anarchy. Entropy, Nalllralism

29

excludes the possibility of change since the laws represent "un determinisme absolu." Critics have used the arguments put forth by Zola to claim that his plots are contrived and motored by fatalistic laws that determine a priori the outcome of a given situation.29 To do so, however, is to risk mistaking Zola's intentions as identical with his actual aesthetic practices. The concept of entropy sketched above suggests that Zola�s narratives included a much more flexible framework than HLe roman experimental" leads us to believe. Furthermore, his appeal to scientific theories should be understood as a strategic means of advancing the naturalist cause and not necessarily as its aesthetic manifesto: "'[ ... ] the excesses of 'Le roman experimental' are to be explained as polemical and rhetorical strategies [ .. .]. This text needs therefore to be considered in the context of that continuous battle of prefaces, manifestoes and journal articles [ ... J which was the reality of literary life (and survival) in Zola's time" (Baguley 60, 1 990). Moreover, Zola's views were often contradictory, as when he advocated a more subjective vision of art that opposed his scientific arguments.30 Reviewing Proudhon's Du principe de / 'art et de sa destination socia/e31 in an article entitled "Proudhon et Courbet," Zola claims complete independence for the artist's expression: "je suis diametralement oppose it Proudhon: il veut que I 'art soit Ie produit de la nation, j ' exige qu'il soit Ie produit de I'individu" (40). In his text, Zola defines the work of art as "un coin de la creation vu it travers un temperament," thus emphasizing the artist's individuality. He concludes by identifying two types of realism: a la Proudhon, which he calls "art rationnel [ ... J une negation de I'art, une plate illustration de lieux communs philosophiques"; a la Zola, which negates the

29 On this account, Philip Walkcr writcs: "Zola's charactcr generally tend to lack that unpredictability which would indicate the possession of a free will. [ ...J They do not act so much as they react or are acted on. They are essentially products of natural and social forces" (6-7). 30 In a letter dated August 18th 1 864 written to Antony Valabregue, Zola states: "Nous voyons la creation dans une reuvre, a travers un homme, a travers un temperament, une personnalite, [ 1 La n&alite exaete est done impossible dans une reuvre d'art" (Quoted in the "Dossier historique et litteraire" to the Pocket Edition of Thi!J'ese Raquill, 1991, p. 289). 3 1 TIle article appeared in two installments of Le Sallli Public, on July 26 and August 3 1 1865. ...

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social ("une negation de la societe") and celebrates the individual ("une affirmation de l'individu, en dehors de toutes regles et de toutes necessites sociales") (46), Zola's position as outlined in this article clearly draws him closer to the artists that justified their artistic freedom by appealing to the individualist anarchist. Ironically, Zola also shows that the father of anarchy would have disapproved of this individualist art. Zola's hesitation between scientific objectivity and artistic individuality translates naturalism's inherent tension of questioning the ability to seize the real from within the realist paradigm. For the purposes of my argument, I will use Baguley's definition of nahlralism as advanced in his book Naturalist Fiction: The Entropic Vision and i n which he writes: Naturalist literJture could [ ] be defined as a genre which calls upon the strategies of realist art to represent in its human aspects this entropie [...] vision of life. The contours of the organization of material reality fade; its ordered arrangements are perceived to degenerate into disorder; the continuity of the laws regularing it break down; matter becomes energy-and the specter of dissipation looms. [ . J At the heart of the naturalist vision, then, there is a poetics of disi ntegration, dissipation, death, with its endless repertory of wasted lives of destructive forces, of spent energies [ ... ] (Baguley 221-2, 1 990). ...

.

.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 30. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=30

,

The three concepts that guide my own analysis-anarchy, entropy and naturalism-arc at the core of Bagulcy's definition. By identifying entropy as that which characterizes naturalism, Baguley locates the latter on the fringes of an evanescent reality that it cannot seize, where "the contours of the organization of material reality fade." Once entropy has been conquered in Zola's latter novels, his narratives cease to operate within a naturalist register, thus confirming Baguley�s analysis. The horizon of catastrophe characteristic of Zola's novels such as the explosion of the Voreux in Germinal-participates in the "poetics of disintegration, dissipation, death." Furthermore, since the terrorist bomb, as shown above, is an integral part of the "en tropy" deployed in Zola's texts, the anarchist becomes central to the aesthetic revisions that move the novels away from naturalism. I would add to Baguley's definition that the representation of entropy invades the discourse itself, gnawing at its foundation: the tragic position that naturalism occupies in the literary history of the nineteenth century lies in the staging of the collapse of its own functional premises. Explosive Narratives analyzes the interactions between these concepts in three of Zola's novels by mapping the symbolic function of the anarchist bomb-thrower in the overall economy of these nar-

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 31. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=31

Anarchy. Entropy, Nalllralism

31

ratives. A volatile paradox emerges from such mappings. On the one hand, the anarchist character is recuperated by the hegemonic discourse to legitimize its power, a move registered in society at large. Many critics have shown how the image of the terrorist was manipulated by authorities to repress any revolutionary movement, even those that were not associated with anarchy. Of Vaillaint's attack against the Chambre,32 Sonn concludes: "The nonlethal bombing could scarcely have been better calculated to give the government an excuse to redouble its antianarchist campaign than if it had been planned by the government itself [ .. .]" (20, 1 989). Furthermore, the terrorist attacks provided a "spectacle" of violence that participated in the logic of naturalist representation and was exploited by newspapers to increase their sales. We will show in Paris, for example, that anarchy provided the narrative capital to increase sales of the novel, unmasking the collusion between radical politics and consumerism.33 A curious alliance is thus forged between central authority and marginal dissent, between a totalizing vision and opaque phenomena. On the other hand, these strategies of containment and recuperation fail by creating what Redding has aptly named "an epistemic faultline," eroding the "positivist knowledge" ( 1 t ) which subtends naturalist representational strategies. By constructing the anarchist as the ultimate other and entropy as the dissolution of reality, the alleged cohesiveness of naturalist representation was at once affirmed through juxtaposition and challenged as phantasmagorical. My study moves chronologically from Germinal to Travail. In the first chapter, "Souvarine's Vanishing Act: The Effacement of Anarchy in Germinal," I identify the moments in the narrative that excise the anarchist/terrorist, a symptom of an ideological parti pris against 32 See Table # I , pages 1 2 and 13. 33 The Musee Grevin, the wax museum that adopted realistic representations as its

raison d'etre, provides an interesting case of the intersection between anarchy and the speculative economy of fin de siecle France. Indeed, one of the first "tableaux" ever presented in the museum, according to Vanessa R. Schwartz in her article entitled "The Morgue and the Musee Grevin" was the arrest of the Russian nihilists: "The success of the tableau 'Arrest of Russian Nihilists' lay in its details, according to one review: 'Not a detail is missing, the icons, papers, canons, thick newspapers.' The tableau included paper imported from Russia on which real Russian characters were written, and a samovar and tea glasses that came from Moscow" (283). Furthermore, another scene chosen to be represented was drawn from Zola's Germinal und Grcvin himself proclaimed that the Museum "will be Naturalist or will not be" (283).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 32. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=32

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revolutionary politics in general. Although the final political message favors a peaceful resolution to class warfare, the anarchist consciousness lingers through to the end, providing a radical questioning of the bourgeois order. The second chapter, "Anarchy as Narrative Capital: The Emplotment of Terrorism in Paris," traces the collusion between the political stmctures of the Third Republic and the anarchist sub-text, showing that revolutionary politics are co-opted by the hegemonic power. In the last chapter, '''The Anarchic Commune as World's Fair in Travail," the revolutionary anarchist has been completely domesticated and his subversive practices neutralized into an innocuous force. The effacement of the violent anarchist that leads from the terrorist Souvarine to the utopian Luc Froment is paralleled by major shifts in 20la 's aesthetic practices: the naturalist depiction of reality is progressively abandoned for a utopian mode of writing. In this way, the image of the bomb-throwing anarchist is a posteriori proven to be an integral component in the construction of a naturalist aesthetic. The title of my project, Explosive Narratives, should be under stood at various levels. It obviously refers to the various "explo sions" that frame and motivate Zola's plots, from the collapse of the Voreux in Germinal to Salvat's bombing in the opening of Paris to the incendiary catastrophe that levels the Abime in Travail. It also alludes to a "reality" refocused through the lens of entropy, that quintessential modem experience described by Marx as "All that is solid melts into air" and recovered i n the title of Marshall Berman�s now classic study. Yet, ultimately, explosive narratives signal the internal potentiality of fragmentation at the heart of realist representational strategies, the threats of a volatile force tenuously ensconced in the figure of the anarchist, the creeping horror of the void created by bombs shattering our illusions of positive knowledge.

Chapter 1 Souvarine's Vanishing Act:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 33. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=33

The Effacement of Anarchy in Germinal

When Germinal was first published in the early months of 1 885, France was going through a period of transition in both the literary and political realms. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece of nahlralism, the novel earned Emile Zola the honor of being compared to the likes of Homer, Dante and Shakespeare. After the long battles of the 1 870s, Zola's vision had finally established itself as the dominant literary movement of the 1 880s, the triumph over romanticism symbolically evoked by Victor Hugo's funeral in 1 885. No sooner had it reached its apex, however, than naturalism started to come under attack by the younger literary generation affiliated with the decadent and symbolist movements. Huysman's A rebollrs was published in 1 884, Verlaine's "Langueur" in 1 885, and Rimbaud's Illuminations along with Moreas's Manifeste du Symbolisme in 1 886. Parallel to these changes in the literary field, the political forces in France were being reshuffled as anarchist and socialist tendencies began to gain ground among the working class. In fact, economic hardship combined with a liberal regime allowed socialist and anarchist ideas to flourish among the ranks of the workers during the 1 880s. The repression that followed the Commune during the beginnings of the Third Republic did much to halt the consolidation of a revolutionary party in France, many of its leaders either having been killed or exiled to New Caledonia. Further more, the conservative governments of Thiers and MacMahon stifled any strike and advocated laws that prohibited workers' organizations, including the law of March 1 4th, 1 872, which penalized any worker who joined a "subversive" international association. With the triumph of republican forces in 1 880, however, the French political field opened up to leftist forces: the official pardon given to the exiled Communards in 1 880, the French press laws of 1 8 8 1 , as well as the

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 34. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=34

laws of 1 8 8 1 and of 1 884 legalizing unions and strikes, granted the necessary freedoms needed to organize the labor force. At the same time that these laws were being implemented, an economic recession of international dimensions affected French production, thus worsening the already precarious conditions of the workers. The early part of the 1 8805 was thus marked by a series of strikes and violent unrest in industrial centers, including Anzin, Le Creusot, and Montceau-les-Mines.1 Three contending leftist parties thus emerged in France in the early 1 880s that tried to vie for control of the workers' movement. The socialists split into two factions in September of 1 882, a "possibiliste" branch headed by Paul Brousse and a Marxist one led by Jules Guesde. The fonner branch wanted to participate i n parliamentary politics and bring about change through political reform whereas the latter-while still believing in organizing the workers as a political force-wanted nevertheless the immediate overthrow of the Third Republic and its instinttions through violent upheavals. Finally, anarchist ideas were penetrating workers' circles as well, and although no real party existed at this point,2 the sway of this international movement could be registered in the number of anarchist publications that appeared in the early 80s as well as the violent acts perpetrated during the unrest at Montceau-Ies-Mines, which were directly attributed to anarchist influence.3 Although the anarchists agreed with I For background infonnation on the political and econcomic situation of the 1 880s, I direct my readers to the following sources: Sonn's Allarchism alld Cultural Politics ill Fill de Siecle Frallce, Becker's Emile lola: Germillal, and Henri Mitterand's "Etudes, notes et variants" in the Plciade edition of Germillal. 2 Jean Maitron asserts: "Si l'on fait abstraction de quelques essais isolcs et sans lendemain, il n&sulte de celie etude que durant une douzaine d'annees-Je 1 882 a [ 894-il n'y a en France ni 'parti' anarchiste national, ni federations regionales, il n'existe que des groupes loeaux sans liens entre eux" ( 1 2 1 , 1 9 75) 3 For data on the number ofpub[ications appearing in this time period, see Maitron, p. [40 For more on the uprisings at Montceau-[es-Mines, see Maitron, especially Part n, section 2, entitled "Le role des anarchistes dans les mouvements de protestation populaire," pp. 1 5 1-182. In it, Maitron amnns that a mysterious band of revolutionaries named "La Bande Noire" terrorized the region of Montceau-Ies Mines: "Operant toujours la nuit, elle [La Bandc Noire] comme! it partir du 5 aoOt t s'attaquant de preference aux croix nombrcuses [ 1 882] toute une serie d'attenats, dans la region. [...} le [ 5 aofit, vers 1 0 heures du soir, commence une seric d'altaques a la dynamite et a la hache contre [a chapelle et ['ecole des SIXUrs du hameau de Bois Duveme" (\56, 1975). Colel1e Becker has also called al1ention to the anarchist tendencies that colored the al1acks perpetrated in Montceau-Ies-Mines during the .

.

Souvarine's Vanishing Act

35

the Guesdists in their reliance on violence to bring about change, they advocated individual action over mass movements to catalyze social upheavals.4 Set in a town of Northern France during the Second Empire, Emile Zola's Germinal nevertheless makes constant references to the political debates of the 1 8 80s. The novel recounts a miners' strike against the owners of the Voreux,5 the symbolic name of a coal mine that alludes to its voracity. Although obviously referring to the violently repressed demonstrations at La Ricamarie (June 1 869) and at Aubin (October 1 869) that took place during the reign of Napoleon III, Zola's inspiration was derived mostly from the 1 884 labor unrest at Anzin which he experienced first handJ' As a pendant to L 'Assommoir, Germinal was destined to explore the political question of the workers, an issue which was entirely absent from the first novel: "[ . J ce projet [d'un deuxieme roman ouvrier] s'est precise, lorsque je me suis rendu compte du vaste mouvement socialiste qui travaille l'Europe d'une fas:on si redoutable" (Mitterand 1 8 1 6).7 When asked by a journalist whether he would side with the miners in his portrayal of the strike, Zola eluded the thorny issue of his political penchants as presented in his work by calling upon a naturalist aesthetic of depiction that shows "what is" rather than "what ought to

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 35. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=35

..

years 1 882-4: "La presse s'emouvait d'autant plus que, a Montceau-les-Mines, par exemple, avaient eu lieu de graves incidents marques par des allentats anarchistes" ( 1 7, 1988). That lola might have used "La Bande Noire" as inspiration for some of the scenes in Germinal, especially the workers' meeting at Ie Plan-des-Dames, should come as no surprise. He was fully cognizant of the events at Montceau, as the following notes taken during the preparatory stages of the novel fully demonstrate: "Depuis quelque temps, conciliabule secret, la nuit, dans les bois, dans les carrieres, dans les cabarets. Menees socialistes, association... secrete designee sous Ie nom de Bande-Noire" (Becker 364, folio 177, 1986). 4 As explained in the introduction, these individual acts were better known as propaganda by the deed and they had already afTcclCd other European nations, especially Russia, where Tsar Alexander II had fallen victim to the nihilists on March I yh, 1 88 1 . 5 For the purposes of this analysis, I will use the term "bourgeoisie" interchangeably with "upper class." Though there are certain distinctions between M. Hennebeau, the director of tht: Voreux, and the Gregoires, who live off the profits supplied by their investments in the mine, they nevertheless share similar views of the working class. 6 The notes takcn during his trip to Anzin have been published in Emile Zola, Camels d 'ellqueres: Ulle efhnographie ill/!(Iire de 10 France by Henri Milterand. 7 Unless otherwise stated, all subsequent references 10 Mitterand in this chapter refer to his "Enldes, notes et variantes," in the Pleiade edition of Germinal.

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be": "Le naturalisme ne se prononce pas. II examine. 11 decrit. II dit: Ccci cst. C'est au public de tirer les conclusions" (Mitterand 1 859). We will see, however, that this positioning was untenable even for the father of naturalislTI. In this chapter, I would like to nuance Zola's claim to ideological neutrality by studying the effacement of anarchy in Germinal. First, 1 will provide a cursory reading of the politics in the novel, showing that its ideological framework oscillates between progressive intent and formal resistance to change. Then, I will propose that Souvarinc's reduced role in the final version of the novel and Etienne's evolution from anarchist revolutionary to pacifist "possibiliste" signal an ideological parti pris revealing deep-rooted anxieties about anarchy i n general. By so doing, the portrayal of the strike i n the novel confirms and colludes with the phantasms of the upper class by collapsing any revolutionary intent with apocalyptic fears associated with a naiVe understanding of the workers' movement. Yet, hard as Zola tries to efface anarchic tendencies in the text, they nonetheless resurface in the conclusion which hesitates between a nonviolent solution to class conflict and a bloody revolution.

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The ambiguous politics of Germillal

I n Anarchy & Culture: The Aesthetic Politics of Modernism, David Weir affirms that "naturalist writers, at least those who follow the model of Zola most closely, set their fictional experiments i n motion to show just how powerfully oppressive present society is, and there is no mistaking the moral and political intent of such a presentation" (63). In other words, by exposing the social conditions through which individual destinies are forged, naturalism's "implicit message is that the social environment needs to be reformed" (63). Naturalist descriptions always convey a potential utopian message of change, a message contradicted however, according to Weir, by nahlralism's own "'deterministic laws" which preclude any possible change. The result is a political aporia, the revolutionary intents of the author running counter to "the conservative implications of the deterministic formula whereby environment and heredity combine to limit the possibility of political change, especially that radical variety of change envisaged by anarchism" (64). The conundrum identified by Weir is useful in understanding the ambiguous politics of Germinal, the tension between the intentions of the author and the literary genre of naturalism.

Souvarine's Vanishing Act

37

Since by Zola's own admission, the novel was to be a n exploration of the nascent socialist movement, it would be logical to locate the ideology of the text in the manifest political content of the work. Rather than a faithful depiction of the politics of the Second Empire, the period in which the novel is set, Zola tampers with the temporal elements in the novel, sacrificing authenticity to comment on the debates that were unfolding during the 1 880s. The critics were quick to point out this anomaly and Souvarine-the anarchist character-was especially subject to attacks for not being a believable character because of his anachronistic tenets. The now famous article from the National which appeared in March 8th, 1 885, stated that the Russian nihilists had not commenced their reign of terror until after the end of the Second Empire in France: "Ce n'est pas a la fin du Second Empire [ ... J qu'ont commence en Russie les attentats contre Ie czar et les repressions sanglantes qui ont empli d'exiles les teITes d'Occident" (Grant 7 1 , 1 962) 8 Zola rehearses the politics of the period through contrived and superimposed discussions held mostly by Rasseneur. Souvarine and Etienne, each representing the "possibilistes ," the anarchists and the Guesdists cOITespondingly.9 The three characters, however, become stereotypical, spouting political dogma rather than engaging with their

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 37. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=37

8 Modern critics as well have insisted on Zola's anachronistic portmyal of anarchy.

Colette Becker, for example, states: "Le personnage qui pose Ie plus de problemes est Souvarine. [...] Le passe, la presence a Moscou de eet intellectuel raffine eomme l'acte qu'il commet eontre Ie Vorcux sont, historiquement, invraisemblable" (42, 1988). The mention of dynamite in the latter part of the novel is also anachronistic, since Ihe explosive material was not invented until 1868, and the novel takes place in 1 866-67: "11 [Souvarine1 allait, de son air tranquille, it l'extermination, partout ou il y aumit de la dynamite, pour faire sauter les villes et les hommes" ( 1 548). Some critics have nevertheless attenuated Zola's supposed "irresponsibil ity" with historical facts by pointing out that Karakazov had tried to assassinate the tsar Alexander I I as early as 1 866. Furthennore, the fact that Turgenev's fictional nihilists had already appeared in such novels as Fathers and Sons and Virgin Soil, seems to excuse Zola's liberties. 9 Zo[a wrote on his preparatory notes to the novel: "Voir quelle opinion on peut donner a Rasseneur. Je [e vois deja moins avanee qu'Etienne, demandant simplement des reformcs. C'cst un possibilistc. Etienne au comraire cst un col1ectiviste aUioritairc, Souvarinc est anarchiste" (Mittcrand 1852). In his notes, one also finds the following remarks on the role of these three chamcters: "Le collectivisme: a I' extreme gauche les anarchistes ou nihilistes (Bakounine, Ie prince Kropotkine en est Ie type). lis sont obscurs et repugnent au geni e fran'Vais clair: lutte d'EtiL"flne et de Souvarine; puis, les collectivistes intransigeants, autoritaires, jacobins (Etienne) ct les collectivistes evolutionnistes, les possibilistcs (Rasscneur)" (Mittcrand 1 852).

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different philosophies. During the meeting at the Plan-des-Dames, for example, Rasseneur recites political slogans as if he had learned them by heart: "Vainement, il [Rasseneur] paria dans Ie bruit, il voulut reprendre Ie discours d'apaisement qu'il promenait, I' impossibilite de

changer Ie monde it coups de lois, la necessite de laisser it l'evolution sociale Ie temps de s'accomplir" (Mitterand 1 3 8 1 ), 1 0 No explanation is given for Rasseneur's tenets, whose evolutionist stand is summarized by superficial maxims. Similarly, Souvarine is presented as a violent anarchist, and no effort is made in the novel to present a more nuanced portrayal of the anarchist position. I I His speeche s are purely didactic, a lesson on the extreme tenets of the party as conceived by

conservative political analysts, such as Emile de Lave1eye, Zola's main source for information on the socialist questi on . 12 Sandy Petrey claims, for example, that Souvarine's career as described in the novel is "similar to the assassinations and sabotages on everyone's mind. His origin, his physical appearance, his solitude, his monomaniacal devotion to his cause [ ...J are all qual it i es associated with the Russian

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 38. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=38

destroyer of contemporary newspapers" (57). As for Etienne, he explains his collectivist position by affinning his faith in Karl Marx and dem an ding the nationalization of private enterprises: "Au sommet, restait debout l'idee de Karl Marx: Ie cap ital elait Ie resultat de la spoliation, Ie travail avait Ie devoir et Ie droit de roconquerir cctto richcssc volCc. [ ... J il en arrivait depuis peu au collcctivismc, i l demandait que tous les instruments de travail fussent ren dus a 1 a

1 0 All subsequent quotes from Germinal come from Ihe Plciade edition of Ihe novel (Les ROllgon-Macqllart: Histoire naturelle et sociale d·l/ne famille 50115 Ie Secolld Empire, Armand Lanoux el Henri Mitterand, eds. vol. 3. Paris: Gallimard, "Bibliotheque de In Pleiade" \963). I I Although the popular imagination often associated the anarchists with violent revolutionaries, they supported a program of social change that went far beyond this naive image. Proudhon advocated a contractual society formed by individuals freed from the tutelage of the State. Proudhon is actually mentioned in Germinal in this context: "Dans 1a pratique. i1 [Etienne] s'clail d'abord, avec Proudhon, laissc prendre par la chimcre du credit mutuel, d'une vaste banqlle d'echange. qui sllpprimait les intennediaires" ( 1 340). Though the narrator at least acknowledges a different aspect of anarchy, he does not mention the party by name. Furthermore, the narrator discredits Proudhon's ideas by using the word "ehimere." 12 Zola consulted the work entitled Le Socialisme cOlllempol"aill (1881) written by the Belgian sociologist Emile de Laveleye to learn about the socialist movement. All of Zola's notes regarding this work have been published in Colette Becker, Emile 201a: Lafabrique de Germinal (Paris: Sedes, 1986), 425-43 1 .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 39. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=39

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collectivite" (Mitterand 1 340). No sooner has Etienne explained his theory, however, than the text undermines all of its political content: "il I'expliquait mal, en phrases dont la confusion gardait un peu de toutes les theories traversees et successivement abandonnees. [... ] cela demeurait vague, il ne savait comment rcaliser ce nouveau reve [ ... ]" (Mitterand 1340). Zola thus relies on an artifieial and rudimentary characterization to present one-dimensional descriptions of socialism and anarchy as embodied by these three characters. In fact, Zola did not bother to read any of the major political theorists that he mentions in his text: "En ce qui concerne Ie mouvement ouvrier et Ie socialisme, il n'a pas lu les textes des grands theoriciens auxquels il fait allusion (Marx, Bakounine ... ). II s'est contente des resumes de leurs doctrines faits dans des ouvrages de seconde main, peu favorables au socialisme" (Becker 32, 1 988).13 Though the overt political content of the novel would thus reveal conservative tendencies as refracted by Laveleye's analyses, I would argue that the cursory treatment of these different perspectives does not suffice to define the politics of Germinal because the characters do not engage with their own theoretical presuppositions. Zola's avowed intentions are in fact inconsistent with a conservative reading: Germinal was meant to open the eyes, and thereby raise the consciousness of the bourgeoisie, to the current injustices of the capitalist system by fully exposing the misery of the workers. A year after the publication of the novel, Zola wrote a letter to a friend in which he apostrophizes the bourgeoisie and states: "Harez-vous d'etre justes, autrement, voila Ie peril: la terre s'ouvrira et les nations s'cngloutiront dans un des plus effroyables bouleverse ments de I'histoire" ( Mitterand 1 82 1). This statement challenges the neutrality of Zola and confirms the possibility of avoiding a revolution through political change. This position is corroborated by Zola's goal

13 Mitterand agrees with Becker when he states: "[ ...] tandis que la pcinture du travail et des mreurs des ramilles de mineurs reposait pour une grande part sur une observation directc, l'etotTe des trois personnages politiques du roman tcnait moins aux brcfs cntrcticns que Zola avail pu obtenir de tel militant d' Anzin, qu'aux ouvragcs abslrails, el au surplus hostiles au socialisme, qu'il avail Ius ou relus aprcs coup, dans la solitude du cabinet" ( 1 852). Baguley characterizes Laveleye's analyses in Le Socia/isme contempo}'aill, as an "almost hysterical presentation [that] goes rar beyond his social amI political terms or rererence, as he invokes the myth or cosmic destmction and the problem or evil, fundamental in his view of the religious preoccupations orthe nihilists" (Baguley 791, 1971).

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of frightening the bourgeoisie into action: '''Lorsque 1a greve 6ciate, explosion d'autant plus violentc que 1a misere, la souffrance a ete plus grande. [ . . ] itfaut que Ie lecteur bourgeois aiT lin /rissofl de terreur'" (Mitterand 1 825, emphasis added). Ironically, one could construe Zola's intentions as an example of propaganda by the deed, a virtual explosion that should have political repercussions. Had the "lois scelerates" already come into force, perhaps Zola would have ended up accused of anarchism, sharing the bench with Jean Grave during the infamous "Proces des Trente." Throughout the novel, the bourgeois mode of production is depicted as fomenting economic inequalities and exploiting the workers' labor to maintain the ruling class in power. In other words, the social system relies on a redistribution of violence, a monopoly in the hands o f the upper classes that maintains its hegemonic advantage. Upon first seeing the Voreux, Etienne compares it to a monster devouring the miners' toil: "Cette fosse, tassee au fond d'un creux, avec ses constructions trapues de briques, dressant sa cheminee comme une come menayante, lui semblait avoir un air mauvais de bete goulue, accroupie lit pour manger Ie monde" ( 1 1 35). The Voreux is thus described in antagonistic terms-"come menayante, un air mauvais, manger Ie monde"-an integral piece in the bourgeoisie's system of oppression. The Voreux's image is metonymically transfonned from that of concrete machine to symbol of the whole capitalist apparatus. As Besa reminds us, this displacement-from technological object to economic system-is integral to Zola�s nahlralist aesthetic: "Zola [uses] the figure of the machine to symbolize the natural and social determinism of man, that is to say, the fatality of desire and the corruption of work under the capitalist system" (my translation, 137).14 When asked to whom the mine belongs, Bonnemort responds vaguely, not knowing exactly who benefits from his work: "On n'en sait rien. A des gens" ( 1 141). He points toward the horizon, his voice trembling with religious respect for the stock holders who own the company: "Sa voix avait pris une solie de pcur rcligieusc, c'etait commc s'il cut parle d'un tabernacle inaccessible, ou se cachait Ie dicu rcpu ct accroupi, auqucl ils donnaient tous leur chair, et qu'jls n'avaient jamais vu" ( 1 141). The

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 40. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=40

.

14 " Zola [lltiliza] la figllra de la nlliqllina para signifiear el determinismo natural y social del hombre, es dccir, las fatalidades de la came y la cOITllpcion del trabajo en el sistema capitalista."

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inequalities in the system are spatially transposed in this passage by placing the owners in the heavens-"Ie dieu repu et accroupi"-in contrast to the miners, who work in an underground inferno. Furthermore, the adjective "repu" indicates the wasted resources, as the gods eat to satiation whereas the workers go hungry. 1 5 The Gregoires' motto best encapsulates the existing system: "[.. J I'argent que vous gagnent les autres, est celui dont on engraisse Ie plus s"rement" (1 202). The prospects of a strike momentarily shake the confidence of the bourgeoisie, but the narrative demonstrates that even these acts of subversion are recuperated and manipulated so as to maintain the status quo. Ironically, Souvarine is the only one with enough insight to predict the outcome of the miner's rebellion: .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 41. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=41

Lui seul avait l'intelligence assez dcliee pour analyser la situation. [...] Oepuis deux mois, la houille restait sur Ie carreau de ses fosses, presque toutes les usines chomaient. Comme elle [Ia Compagnie] n'osait chomer aussi, effrayee devant l'inaction ruineuse du materiel, c1le reva un moyen tenne, peut-etre une greve, d'Oll son peuple de mineurs sortirait dompte et mains payc (1284).

In other words, the miners' defying act is actually orchestrated by the owners of the means of production to minimize their loses during an economic depression. The fact that M. Hennebeau is awarded the Legion d'Honneur after the massacre of the workers does confinn Souvarine's prophecy. Once the workers surrender and return to work, the members of the ruling class meet at La Piolaine to celebrate the future marriage of Negrel and Cecile: "Tout se passa Ie mieux du monde. [ ... J il y avait du triomphe dans la joie generale, Ie diner tournait it la celebration officielle d'une victoire" ( 1 522).16

15 For more on the metaphor of the "dieu repu" in Germinal, I direct my readers to Henri Mincmnd's article "La Betc gouluc" in his Le Regard et Ie siglle: Poetiqlle till I"OIl1(1n realisle el lIalllrafis/e, pp. 231-247. 16 There arc indications in the text, however, that the weaker mcmbers of the upper class are also affected by the strike. A case in point is Deneulin, the young owner of Ihe Vandamc minco M Hcnnebeau hopes to buy the mine al a lower price after the strike: "II [M. Hennebeau] ccoutait, et un plan germait en lui: dans Ie cas ou la greve loumcrail mal, pourquoi nc pas l'utiliser, laisser les choses sc giiter jusqu'u la ruine du voisin, puis lui racheter sa concession u bas prix? C'elait Ie moyen Ie plus sur de regagner les honnes grJcl.::s des n�gisseurs, qui, dl.::puis des annees, rCvail.::nt dl.:: posscder Vandame" (1315). The strike ruins the young entrepreneur, and he has no other choice but to concede his mine to M . Hennebeau ( 1 523).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 42. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=42

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These passages, which explicitly condemn the bourgeoisie for taking advantage of the workers' plight, arc further nuanced by a series of tableaux contrasting the miners' and the bourgeoisie's living conditions, thus offering a morc surreptitious criticism of the dominant class. Nothing captures the distance that separates the two social casts better than their respective morning rituals. In the first two books of the novel, Zola focuses on this very moment, using innovative narrative techniques that show parallel actions unfolding at the very same time. Whereas the Maheus are up at four in the morning, the Gregoires usually sleep until nine in the morning: "Ce matin-Ia, les Gregoire s'etaient leves it IlUit heures. D'habitude, ils ne bougeaient guere qu 'une heure plus tard, dormant beaucoup, avec passion)) ( 1 1 94). Catherine sleeps in a room with all of her siblings, a room characterized by its poverty: "[ ... ] la chandelle eclairait l a chambre, carree, a deux fenetres, que trois lits emplissaient. I I y avait une armoire, une table, deux chaises de vieux noyer, dont Ie ton fumeux tachait durement les murs" ( 1 1 43). Cecile, on the other hand, sleeps in a sumptuous room: "La chambre etait la seule luxueuse de 1a maison, tendue de soie bleue, garnie de meubles laques, blancs it filets bleus, un caprice d'enfant galee satisfait par les parents. Dans les blancheurs vagues du lit, sous Ie demi-jour qui tombait de l 'ecarte ment d'un rideau, la jeune fille dormait, une joue appuyee sur son bras nu" ( 1 1 96). Whereas Catherine is sickly, with a sallow complexion, "un teint bleme du visage," Cecile's healthy skin is compared to fresh milk, "une chair superbe, une fraicheur de lait" ( 1 1 96). The miners' hunger is revealed when Catherine opens the cupboard to find almost no provisions: "Devant Ie buffet ouvert, Catherine reflechissait. 11 ne restait qu 'un bout de pain, du fromage blanc en suffisance, mais it peine une lichette de beurre; et il s'agissait de faire les tartines pour eux quatre" ( 1 149). At the Grcgoires, on the contrary, food i s abundant-HOes provisions debordaient des rateliers et des armoi res" ( 1 195)-and the warm brioche cooked especially for Cecile's breakfast ironically accentuates the indifference of the bourgeoisie to the misery ofthc miners. Although obviously not making any political pronouncements, 201a's depiction of the two classes makes a case against the bourgeoisie by appealing to pathos: "[ ... ] Germinal est une reuvre de pitie, et non une reuvre de revolution. [ ...] Qui, un cri de pitie, un cri de justice, je ne veux pas davantage. Si Ie sol continue it eraquer, si demain les desastres annonees epouvantent Ie monde, c' est qu'on ne m'aura pas entendu" (20la, Correspondance VoL V, 347). Perhaps 201a was deaf to his own plea. Indeed, the gap between intent and literary form reproduces the gap that separates the two

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 43. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=43

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classes especially through an economy of the gaze that positions the workers as objects to be examined and studied. The portraits of the Emperor and the Empress that hang on the wall of the Maheu's kitchen, for example, stare blankly and impassively upon the tragedy that befalls the family.17 Etienne remarks of the portraits: "'Et dire qu'on n'aurait pas deux sous de ces jean-foutre qui nous regardent crever!" ( 1357). Similarly, Mme Hennebeau, the director's wife, brings her Parisian friends over to the workers' quarter, "Ie coron des Deux-Cent-Quarante," as if it were a curiosity shop: "Mme Henne beau [ ...J faisait visiter Ie coron a ses invites. [... J Deja Mme Hennebeau se lassait, heureuse un instant de se distraire it ce role de montrellr de betes, dans l'ennui de son exil, mais tout de suite repugnee par I'odeur rade de misere" ( 1 2 1 7, 1223, emphasis added). They stop at the Maheus' house, where Mme Hennebeau sings the praises of the workers' quarters: "Jamais plus de bruit que va, mceurs patriarcales, taus heureux et bien portants comme vous voyez, un endroit OU vous devriez venir vous refaire un peu, a cause du bon air et de la tranquillit';" ( 1 224). The guests depart enchanted with their visit, "I'air enchante dont on sort d ' une baraque des phi!l1o menes" ( 1 224, emphasis added), agreeing with Mme Hennebeau's conclusions, although they depart in haste fearing to soil their clothes. The passage clearly underlines the hypocrisy of the bourgeoisie, who fully aware of the workers' dismal conditions ("rcpugnee par I'odeur fade de misere"), refuse nevertheless to confront it by passing off as charity their own investments in housing and retirement for the miners: "Nous leur donnons du charbon plus qu'ils n'en bnllent. [ ... J Un medecin les visite deux fois par semaine; et, quand ils sont vieux, ils revoivent des pensions, bien qu'on fasse aucune retenue sur les salaircs" ( 1 223). The exposition mentality of the bourgeoisie betrayed in such expressions as "montreur de betes" and "baraque des phenomenes"-is paradoxically criticized by a naturalist novel whose

17 Even when the Maheus have parted with almost all of their possessions at the worst moments of the strike, the portraits still hang on the wall, an ironic reminder of the Emperor's role in maintaining the social system: "Apres avoir vide les matelas poignee a poignee, on s'etait decide l'avant-veille a vendre pour trois francs Ie coucou; et la piece semblail nue cl marie, depuis que Ie tic-tac familier ne l'emplissail plus de son bruil... Etienne, deboul, regardait les portraits de l'empereur et de I'impcratrice, collcs conln: Ie mUL 11 les en aumit arrachcs depuis longlemps, sans la famille qui les dCfendait, pour I'ornement" ( 1357).

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aesthetic principles emulate these VCIY conventions: "The grand magasin shares several qualities both with Zola's naturalist style and with the consumerism of the World's Fair. [ ... ] His novels entice the reader into the spectacle behind the vitrine, constructing highly visual stories that invite the scrutlnlzmg regard of the consumer! reader" (Garelick 300). The unexpected collusion between Zola's methods and bourgeois controlling mechanisms undermines the im plied criticism of capitalist structures. Furthermore, any intrusion of the workers into a bourgeoi s interior, be it La Piolaine-the Gregoires ' estate or M. Hennebeau's home, i s described as a transgression and provokes a he ightened tension between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. When La Maheude and her children visit the Gregoires in the second book of the novel to beg for money, the latter's first instinct is to bar their entrance from fear of dirtying their house: '''On hesita. Etaient-ils tres

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 44. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=44

sale? Non, pas trop, et ils laisseraient leurs sabots sur Ie per

ron" ( 1203). Once inside, La Maheude and her children feel oppressed by the heat and the smell of the freshly baked brioche. Similarly, when the delegation of workers sent to speak to M. Hennebeau arrives at his house, their presence instills a sense of terror in the bourgeois who were calmly finishing their repast: "Des portes battirent, on entendit passer un souffie d'effroi, au travers des pieces voisines. [... ] Autour de la table, Ies convives s'etaient regardcs, avec un vacillement d'inquictudes" ( 1 3 1 6).18 For their part, the workers feel the same malaise as the Maheude when they enter the residence: [ ] les mineurs, restes seuls, n'oscrent s'asseoir, embarrasses, taus tres propres, vetus de drap, rases du matin, avec leurs cheveux et leurs moustaches jaunes. lis roulaient leurs casquetles entre les doigts, ils jetaient des regards obliques sur Ie mobilier, une de ces confusions de tous les styles, que Ie goOt de l'antiquaille a mises it la mode: des fauteuils Henri I I , des chaises Louis XV, un cabinet i alien t du dix-septieme siecle [. ]" ( 1 3 1 8-19). ...

..

As Sandy Petrey has demonstrated in an interesting interpretation of this passage, the description of the furniture at this point in the novel serves to emphasize the social distance between the Hennebeaus and 18

Paul Negrcl incites Cecile to look at the delegation through the door's key hole: "Paul el Cecile venaient de se lever, el il lui avait fait risquer un wil a la serrure ( 1 3 1 6). The action of spying upon the workers emphasizes the bourgeoisie's fascination with the lower classes as objects to be studied.

"

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the miners: "[ .. . ] Ie passage qui denombre et dcnomme les meubles de Hennebeau est encadre par une chaine d'oppositions qui tendent toutes a accentuer I'impression d'une distance infranchissable entre les bourgeois et leurs travailleurs" (63). Furthennore, by posing as a connoisseur of decorative arts, the narrator paradoxically imitates the very bourgeois structures that he seems to chastise elsewhere in the novel. The cultural capital of the narrator invested in this description is thus displayed in the very same fashion that the furniture is exposed for the workers to see, highlighting the differences between the nar rator, the intended reader, and the proletariat.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 45. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=45

The Resurgence of Anarchy from the Underground Mine

Be it through an objectifying lens that blocks the workers' subjectivity or through descriptions which reaffirm the narrator's cultural authority, the intended ideological meaning is foiled by literary conceits. In Germinal, this tension will crystallize around the figure of the anarchist as it comes to represent both a vector of the bourgeoisie's fears and a literary rejection of the naturalist paradigm. The novel confounds the authentic revolutionary aspirations of the working class articulated by both anarchists and socialists with received notions of apocalyptic prophecies associated with a naive understanding of anarchy. In other words, rather than frightening the bourgeoisie, Germinal continns the upper class's phantasms that collapse any type of revolution with cataclysm. This type of confusion between violent anarchy and socialism was a common tactic used by the ruling classes to discredit any movement that advocated social change: Dans ses prejuges sans nuances a l'egard du mouvement ouvrier, la bourgeoisie ne faisai! point de difference entre \'action syndicale et la propagande socialiste, d'une part et, d'autre part, Ie terrorisme nihiliste ou anarchiste. Celui-ci s'ajoutait a celles-Ia pour crecr un trouble profond dans l'esprit de nombreux publicistes, y faire naitre une representation fantastique de la lutte des classes, et donner corps a une nouvelle prophetie d'apocalypse (Mitterand 1820).19

19 Zola's superficial portrayal of socialism has sparked criticism of the novel's supposed leftist leanings. Herbert affinns, for example: "[ ... ] the unattractive picture of socialists ami anarchists (the vagueness of whose doctrines umlcrscures Zola's meager knowledge of social theory at this time) and the hopelessness of the miners' struggle as it is presented make the book decidedly pessimistic in tone. [ .. . ] There is

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 46. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=46

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The reconfiguration of anarchy as extremist derives from its association-at least in 201a's imagination-with violence and therefore terrorism. As he will later state during the years of the anarchist attacks, this violence was antithetical to his own vision of social reform. Responding to a survey published by La Plume in 1 892 about anarchism, Zola writes: " . . . vallS me demandez mon opinion sur les idees anarchistes. Ce serait tout un volume it ccrire. Mais je puis dire brievernent que je suis, moi, un evolutionniste, croyant au developpement nonnal et continu que les coups de force ne peuvent ni hater, ni arrerer" (Frigerio 1 8). As Uri Eisenzweig reminds us, " ... Ie fait est que pour l'ecrivain [lola], c'est bien la question de la violence, fantasmatique ou non, peu importe, qui prime, lorsqu'il s'agit de 1 'anarchisme" (2 1 0). Granted, this survey was conducted seven years after the publication of Germinal, but the same ideas are at play in the characterization of Souvarine. For some critics, this evolutionary stance reproduces at the ideological level the detenninistic aesthetic of naturalism. As stated in the introduction, this symbolic link between anarchism and terrorism-what Eisenzweig terms "la nouvelle violence"-renders its representation in a realist mode impossible, thus echoing to a certain extent Weir's own analysis of the incompatibility of radical politics and naturalist detenninism. For Weir, this impasse is resolved via a modernist aesthetic that fetichizes the fragment and incorporates this fomlai structure as (radical) political content. Souvarine will translate this fragmentation through the rhetorical entropy defined in the introduction to this study. By joining these two horizons, the anarchist signals a shift from a discursive political message-at the level of content-to a structural one-at the level of form. The anarchist is thus reconfigured as the political unconscious of the work and as such it must be repressed through effacement. As Eisenzweig reaffinns, Souvarine's success as a character lies precisely in his absence: "A I'instar de sa parole constamment associee au silence, la presence de Souvarine dans Germinal est au fond celie d'une absence" (235).

no indication, despite the title and suggestive conclusion, how the purgatory or the proletariat will ever come to an end" (165).

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Critics who have treated the question of anarchy in Germinal, including Lapp , Grant and Baguley,20 have discussed at length the many passages from which Souvarine was eventually cut for the final version of the noveLll Both Lapp and Grant conclude by stating that the reduced role of Souvarine serves to underscore his final violent act and the destruction of the Voreux.22 By contrast, Baguley replaces the anarchist theme in Germinal within a mythical framework, advancing the thesis that Souvarine comes to embody evil and destructive forces: "In essence, whilst Etienne accepts history, Souvarine repudiates it. [ . . . ] Both become truly prophetic characters, personi fy ing the mythical forces of cosmic destruction and renewal at issue in the work" (796-7, 1 9 7 1 ). These critics, however, have failed to identify the most salient aspect of Souvarine's role in the economy of the narrative. By concentrating on the dramatic qualities of Souvarine's act or by evacuating the historical context of the novel by appealing to mythical structures,23 the political dimension of the anarchist is lost, a

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 47. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=47

20

See the following: Lapp, John. "De nouvelles epreuves corrigees par Zola: Germinal." Les Calliers lIal/ll"(llisres 2 1 (1962): 223-226; Grant, E. M. Zola's Germinal: A Critical and His/orical Study. Leicester: Leicester University Press, [ 962; Baguley, David. "The Function of Zola's Souvarine." Modern Language Review (1971): 786-797. 21 The character of Souvarine was partially or completely suppressed from the following sections: Book IV, scctions 4 and 7; Book V, section 6; Book VI sections I , 3, and 5; and Book VII, section 2. For a detail account of these changes, I direct my readers to the articles cited above by John Lapp (especially pages 223-226) and E. M. Grant (especially page 82). See also Henri Mitterand's notes to the Pleiade edition of Ihe novel, especially pages 1 923, 1 924, 1927 and 1928. 22 Lapp affinns: "Cc1ui-ci [Zola] a tres cvidemment envisage Ie revolutionnaire, et son gcste final, comme une force en quclque sone detachee de l'action. [.. . J II fallait donc qu'il ne soit qu'une presence dans Ie roman et que sa figure ne soit pas trop c1airement dessinee par des mpports directs avec les autres personnages [ .. .]" (226). In a similar note, Grant writes: "The conclusion to be drawn from these modifications and eliminations is fairly obvious. Whereas in the manuscript version, Souvarine had a slightly more active role [sic] in the first six parts, in the printed versions, he is strictly limited to the role of social theorist. [... J Nor is he [Souvarine] allowed by Zola in the publishing texts to give the slightest hint of his ultimate intentions" (82, 1962). 23 Baguley writes on this account: "The outcome is a series of works which, above the level of the particular social and historical concerns, the petty realism 10 which literary tradition would confine Zo[a's art, offer a grandiose account of this pennanent tension between the mdiant promises of life and its destructive capacities" (797, [97[). Baguley's choice of words betrays his own ideologica[ preferences, as he opposes a "petty realism" entrenched in the historical to "a grandiose account" that reveals universal truths.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 48. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=48

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dimension which is reflected also in his formal function within the stol)'. Far from refusing the historical, Souvarine roots the novel in a context of class warfare informed by the Commune. As Colette Becker has succinctly put it: "il [Zola] envisage ce roman sur la mine cOlTlIne une sorte de preparation au roman sur la Commune. [ ... ] Surdetermination ideologique dont une des causes est la peur, toujours vivace, nee de la Commune, du grand chambardement, et qui peso en particulier sur 1a creation des personnages de leaders ouvriers" ( 1 4, 63, 1 988). In fact, anarchy in Germinal fulfills a paradoxical role: on the one hand, it serves as a foil to discredit any revolutionary action; on the other hand, it allows for the most extreme type of criticism of the bourgeois order. As the anarchist character in the novel, Souvarine plays the pivotal role of anti-hero, the bad worker whose ideas lead to violence. Throughout the novel, he preaches his credo of total destruction of the social without giving any blueprints for the future society; following Bakunin's lead, he proclaims: "Tous les raisonnements sur l'avenir sont criminels, parce qu'ils empechent la destruction pure et entravent la marche de la revolution" ( 1 343) 24 Propaganda by the deed is his preferred revolutionary method as he advocates random acts of violence to bring about social change: "Par Ie feu, par Ie poison, par Ie poignard. [ ... ] II faut qu'une serie d'effroyables atlentats epouvantent les puissants et reveillent Ie peuple" (1343). His apocalyptic visions, tainted with blood and fire, complement the methods that he espouses: "Oui! I'anarchie, plus rien, la terre lavee par Ie sang, purifiee par I'incendie! On verra ensuite" (1257).

24 For more on Bakunin and the anarchists' anti-representational stance, see Chapler X of Laveleye's Le Socialisme cOIJlemporain entitled "L'Alliance universelle de la democratie et l'ap6tre du nihilisme," pp. 223-284. Many of the characteristics attributed therein to Bakunin are ascribed to Souvarine in Germinal. He writes, for example, "II [Bakounine} veut 'l'anarchie,' mais avec une sorte d'enthousiasme mystique tres etrangcr a Proudhon. II revc la destruction totale dc tOUles les institutions cxislantcs ct unc sociele 'amorphc, ' c'est-a.-dire sans fOnllC aueune, cc qui signifie, en realile, Ie retour it relat sauvage" (224). One can readily reco!,rnize fnlgments of Souvarine's words in this description of Bakunin's political lenels. When asked by Etienne where the anarchist program would lead, Souvarine responds: "A la commune primitive et sans fonne, a. un monde nouveau, au recommencement de lout" (1342).

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Souvarine is furthermore presented as an outcast25 who is never fully accepted by the miners, a character that transgresses national, class, and even gender lines:26 II avait renonee it son rang et it sa fortune, il ne s'etait mis avec les ouvriers, que dans l'espoir de voir se fonder enfin cette societe nouvelle du travail en commun. [ ...] Mais, decidement, la fusion ne se faisait pas, il leur demeurait etranger, avec son mepris de tous les liens, sa volonte de se garder brave, en dehors des glorioles el des jouissances (1 48 1 -82).

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His refusal of human bonds, even with Etienne, underscores the difference between the narrative's ultimate message of revolution through love-the political message that will become central to Travail-and the anarchist's misanthropic characterY The friendship that Etienne feels for the Russian nihilist, for example, is not reciprocated as Souvarine28 declares that any human attachment leads inevitably to weakness and compromises the revolutionary cause: "Ah! rien, ni parents, ni femme, ni ami! rien qui fasse trembler la main, Ie jour OU il faudra prendre la vie des autres ou dOIUler la sienne" ( 1 526). The fact that Souvarine, at the end of the novel, does not impede his colleague from descending to an almost certain death in the mine makes him despicable. To limit the role of anarchy in the novel to the sole character of Souvarine, however, would be erroneous. In fact, the underground 25 Colette Becker writes on this account: "Souvarine, qui n'appara"it pour la premiere fois qu'au debut de la troisieme partie. alors que tous les personnages ont etc presentes, est bien I'eternel solitaire, I'inclassable, Ie dangereux marginal" (68, 1 988). 26 Souvarine is often described in feminine terms: "II devait avoir une tremaine d'anees, d'une barbe legere. Ses dents blanches et pointues, sa bouche et son ncz mince, Ie rose de son teint, lui donnaienl /III air defille, un air de douceur enlctee, que Ie renet gris de ses yeux d'acier ensauvageait par eclairs" ( 1 252, emphasis added). 27 The antisocial character of Souvarine is emphasized through his love of Pologne, his mbbit pet, which he caresses constantly throughout the novel. Baguley has argued that the rabbit remains Souvarine's connection to a sense of "humanity": "Souvarine's attachment to the rabbit is [ . J indicative of his devotion to humanity's cause. [ ...] The sacrifice of Pologne has shown that there can be no law of life linking man to man in bonds of harmony" (793-4, 1971). I would argue, on the contrary, that the attachment 10 Pologne is an ironic way of revealing Souvarine's hatred of mankind. 28 When Souvarine announces to Etienne that he has decided to leave the mine, Etienne is surprised by the cold tone with which Souvarine delivers the news: "C'ctait apres deux heures de promenade, lIU'il lui disait �a, et d'um: \foix si calme, lorsque la seule annonce de celte brusque separation lui serrail Ie cceur, a lui. On s'etail connu, on avait peine ensemble; 9a rend toujours triSIC, ['idee de ne plus se voir" ( 1527). ..

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mine, and by extension, the workers, come to be associated with anarchy as well through a contagion of violence. This analogy is justified i n two counts. On the one hand, Souvarine and his terrorist attacks are linked throughout the novel to underground spaces. The narrator informs the reader that Souvarine had tried to assassinate the Russian Emperor by putting bombs under a city street: "[ ... ] pendant un mois, il avait veeu dans 1a cave d'lln fruitier, creusant une mine au travers de la rue, chargeant des bombes, sous 1a continuelle menace de sauter avec 1a maison" ( 1 253).29 The polysemy of the word "mine" used in the passage obviously makes a direct link between the violence of subterraneous spaces and the coal mine. Rather than an original conception, Zola follows in the wake of a long-standing literary tradition that associates underground areas with revolutionary and subversive practices:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 50. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=50

[ ...] the historical associations of Paris underground with sedition and insurrection runs at least from Babcufs meetings in the cellar of the Pantheon to the group of insurgents in 1848 who hid themselves in the Montmartre quarry (massacred and left there by Cavaignac's troops) and the anarchist ploners in the cellars ofSacrc-Creur described by 201a in Paris (Prendergast 83).

Although not set in Paris, Germinal clearly links revolutionary aspi rations and the underground mine, where it is safely kept at bay from the bourgeois order. As the narrative progresses, these divisions break down as the revolutionary impulse surfaces from the mine, a reversal that signals the return of a repressed violence that had been ultimately in the hands of the bourgeoisie. In other words, the power circuit pennits a short revealing the dangerous (for the upper classes) albeit complicitous flow of violence within the social structure. On the other hand, the anarchic quality of the mine is emphasized through its association with natural catastrophes.3o Zola had already

29 Mitterand has pointed out in the notes to the Pleiade edition of the novel that this passage makes an explicit reference to the assassination of Alexander II of Russia committed in March 13, 1 8 8 1 . 30 20la had always been interested in natural cataclysms; one o f his early pieces was entitled "La Geologic et l'his!oire," published in Le Sa/Itt public of October 14th, 1 865. A book review of Victor Duruy's Jllfrodllcrion generale a I 'his/aire de France, Zola emphasizes those passages that mention natural catastrophes. He writes: "Ce sont de terribles annales que celles de la terre dans les cpoques anlcrieures a I'age present. [...] annees d'incendie et de convulsions qui sccollaient it tout heure les entrailles du monde" (100). For more on the geological model and its influence on

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 51. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=51

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linked anarchist actions to cataclysmic events in his article entitled "La Republique en Russie," written shortly after the assassination of Alexander the Second by the nihilists: "Les nihilistes [ ... J pensent qu'il est plus commode et plus rapide de detenniner un cataclysme general dans lequel la Russie se renouvellera tout entiere. C'est Ie bain de sang, c'est la fonte dans Ie creuset, sous la flamme des incendies, au milieu des ecroulements et des desastres" (565). Etienne, on his very first day underground, hears the sound of a brewing storm, associated in the text with an impending cataclysm: "Depuis un instant, un bruit sourd I'inquietait, Ie bruit lointain d'un orage dont la violence semblait croitre et venir des entrailles de la terre. Etait-ce Ie tonnerre d'un eboulement, ecrasant sur leurs tetes la masse enorme qui les separait du jour" ( 1 1 6 1 )? Indeed, the mine becomes the privileged site in the novel for all types of catastrophes, from the caving in of the mine that costs Jeanlin one of his legs (Book III, section 5) to the flooding that occurs after Souvarine's terrorist act in the very last book of the novel. These events take on a political dimension as they announce the end of the social order. The mob of strikers terrorizing the countryside, for example, is associated with flooding, thus equating political action with natural catastrophes: "De partout, des mineurs debouchaient [ ...J tous debandes, sans chefs, sans annes, coulant naturellement la, ainsi gu 'une eau debordee qui suit les pentes" ( 1 4 1 0). The underground space of the mine associated with subversive activities becomes analogous to crime, further discrediting any revolu tionary action.31 In the first book of the novel, for example, Etienne confesses to Catherine that he had been fired from his fonner job after having slapped a supervisor. A surprised Catherine cannot comprehend such an act because it violates the hierarchies that hold the economic system in place: "Elle demeura stupefaite, bouleversee dans ses idees hereditaires de subordination, d'obeissance passive"

lola's work, I direct my readers to Philip Walker's study entitled Germin(J1 (Jlld Zola ·s Philosophical and Religious Thought. See also his article, "Germinal and lola's Youthful 'New Faith' Based on Geology." 31 The image of the anarchist is manipulated so as to create a link between revolution and crime. It should come as no surprise, then, that the infamous Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso would have dedicated a whole book to this particular question. In it, he declares: "[ ...] on comprend comment les fauteurs les plus actifs de cette idee anarchiste soient [ ...) pour la plus grande partie criminels ou fous, quelquefois l'un et l'autre" (41).

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( 1 1 70). From political action, the narrative swiftly slips into a criminal and hereditary explanation, effectively neutralizing the revolutionary aspects of Etienne's act: ." Je dais dire que j'avais bu, [ ... ] et quand j e bois, cela me rend fou, je me mangerais et j e mangerais les autres.' [ ... ] it avait unc haine de I'cau-dc-vie, la haine du demier enfant d'une race d'ivrognes, qui souffrait dans sa chair de toute eelte ascendance trempee et detraquee d'alcool" ( 1 1 70). The mine thus becomes the perfect setting to bring out Etienne's "bete humaine" or instinctual self: "Quand il pensait a ces chases, un vacillernent palissait ses yeux nairs, 1a courte angoisse de 13 lesion dont il couvait I' inconnu, dans sa belle sante de jeunesse. Un instant, il resta les regards noyes au fond des tcnebres de la mine; et, it cette profondeur, sous Ie poids et I'ctouf fement de la terre, il revoyait son enfance11 ( 1 1 7 1 ) . The reader learns later in the novel that Etienne's '''underground'' self, the "lesion dont il couvait I'inconnu," refers to his thirst for murder, and therefore, for crime. After the violence perpetrated by the miners against Maigrat, recounted in Book V of the novel, Etienne is forced to seek refuge by hiding in Jeanlin's underground haven.32 Once again, his "lesion" comes out in this space: "CeHe nuit interminable, complete, toujours du meme noir, ctait sa grande souffrance. [... ] Cela remuait en lui tout un inconnu d 'epouvante, Ie mal hereditaire, la longue heredite de soo.lerie, ne tolerant plus une goutte d'a1cool sans tomber it la fureur homicide. Finirait-il done en assassin?" ( 1459). Although later replaced by his brother, Jacques Lantier, in La Bete humaine, Etienne was originally destined to be the criminal character of Les Rougon Macquart: "[ ... J il faut Ie faire sortir de la mine, encore plus revolte qu'il n'y entre, Ie preparer pour Ie crime de mon roman sur les chemins de fer et surtout pour la Commune" (Becker 272, 1986). The connection between criminality and revolt could not be more concrete: as a criminal, Etienne is also the best character to embody the Communard.33

32 The readers might reeall that Etienne follows Jeanlin down into an abandoned mine where the latter hides foodstuff and bums wood to keep the place wann. See Book IV, pp. 1366·7 1 . 33 As Mitlerand has insightfully pointed out, this second work on the proletariat was conceived after the Commune took place and the violence of the Civil War colors Zola's approach to the workers' politics throughout the novel: "II faudra cependant la trag�dil.! til.! la CommunI.! pour qu'il [Zola] con�oivl.! II.! pl.!rsonnagc til.! I'ouvrier combattant, rCvolutionnairc" ( 1 8 15). Initially, then, Germinal was supposed to represent the revolutionary worker of the Commune, and although this initial project

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Fulfilling the prophecies of violence, the strike degenerates into anarchy in the fifth part of the novel, especially in sections V and VI. Four interlocking discourses frame the rhetorical strategies mobilized to mediate the workers' violence. First, the strike is construed as a violent revolution through historical references to the Terror (fa guillotine) and the Commune (les petroleuses).34 Second, scientific

descriptions of natural cataclysms inscribe the workers' political aspirations within apocalyptic myths of destruction.35 Third, a l egal discourse portrays the workers' aspirations as criminal. Fourth, a biological discourse of degeneracy reduces the miners to animals thus nahtralizing their social conditions.36 All four rhetorical moves

discredit the workers' strike by associating it with anarchic tendencies, a strategy emulated in the text by the upper class. For instance, when Mme Hennebeau and her party are trapped in a farm, they see in the mob of angry strikers the end to their power and describe the miners

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in the very same way as the narrative:

was ultimately abandoned and treated in La Deblicle, traces of this original project ore present throughout thc novel. 20la refers to this proposed second novel on the proletariat thus: "[ ...] un deuxieme roman ouvrier. .. particulierement politique. L'ouvrier d'insurrection (outil revolutionnaire) de la Commune... aboutissant a mai [87[" ( 1 8 1 5). Colette Becker affirms that 201a's experience with the Commune infonns his characterization of Etienne: "Sur Etienne (pese] [...] Ie choc ressenti par Ie romancicr en 1870-7'" (14, 1988). Furthermore, the character of La Maheude was originally conceived on the model of a "pctroleuse"; see Collete Becker's La Fabrique de Germinal, p. 260. 34 The narrator dcscribcs the ax hcld by thc miners in thc following manncr: "[.. ] cellc hache uniquc, qui ctait commc l'ctendard de la bande, avail, dans Ie ciel clair, Ic profi[ aigu d'un couperet dc guillotine" (1436). Images of the Communc abound as well, the women setting fire in the mines evoke the petrolellses: "[ .. ] la Mouquette se retroussant jusqu'aux cuisses afin de ne pas s'allumer, toutes sang[antes dans [e renet d' incendie, suantes et echevelces de celie cuisine de sabbo\. Les tas de houille montaient, la chaleur ardente gen;:ait Ie pIafond de la vaste salle" ([413). 35 The miners are depicted as on uncontrol1oble force of nature: "[...] plus de deux mille cinq cents forcenes, brisant tout, balayant tout, avec la force accrue du torrent qui mule" ( \ 425). 36 The miners are comparcd to animals throughout thc passagc, thus assimilating thcm 10 the "bcte humainc" or instinctual, savagc side of Etiennc's hereditary "tarc": "Les yeux bru[aient, on voyait seulement res trous des bouches noires, chantant la Marsei[laise, dont res strophes se perdaient en un mugissement confus, accompagne par [e da4uement des sabots sur la terre dure" ( [ 436). The bestiality orthe workers is highlighted with such words as "Ies trous des bouches noires," "un mugissement," and "Ie c1aquement des sabots." .

.

54

Explosive Narratives C'ctait la vision rouge de la revolution qui les cmportait tous, fatalcmcnt, par unc soin�c sanglanlc de CCtiC fin de sicclc. [... ] Des inccndics flambcraicnt, on ne laisscmit pas debout unc pierre des villes, on retoumcrait it la vie sauvage dans les bois, aprcs Ie grand rut, la grande ripaille, ou, les pauvres, en une nuit, emanqueraient les femmes et videraient les caves des riches (...] Qui, c euicn! ccs choses qui passaicnt sur la route, comme une force de la nature, ct ils en reccvaient lc vent terrible au visage (1437). .

'

l

The four discourses traverse the vision of Mrne Hennebeau: the historical ("I a vision rouge de la revolution"), the scientific ("cornm e une force de l a nature"), the legal Cles pauvres efflanqueraient les femmes et videraient les caves des riches"), and the biological ("Ia vie sauvage, Ie grand rut"). The narrator does not comment upon the bour geois conception of the strike, but rather exploits the same rhetoric·al strategies to discredit it. By failing to distance itself ironically from this particular vision, the text colludes ideologically with it. The divisions that separate the proletariat and the bourgeoisie are further challenged as the miners begin to attack the residence of the Hennebeaus. The passage that most clearly evokes the blurring of class distinction and the violence that ensues happens at the moment in which Cecile tries to enter into the house of the Hennebeaus. The striking women fondle her as they try to take off her dress, the very symbol of her status as a bourgeoise: "Sans doute qu'elle n'avait pas Ie derriere mieux fait qu'une autre. [ .. ] Voila assez longtemps que I'injustice durait, on les forcerait bien toutes a s'habiller comme des ouvrieres, ces catins qui osaient depenser cinquantc sous pour le blanchissage d'un jupon" ( 1 447). Bonnemort grasps her neck as he tries to suffocate her: " [. . .] elle eut un cri rauque: des mains fro ides venaient de la prendre au cou. C'etait Ie vieux Bonnemort, pres duquel Ie flot I'avait poussee, et qui I'empoignait" ( 1 447). Similar to the rape scene of Fernande by Ragu in Travail, the scene shows the violent potential of any contact between the two classes. The choice of Cecile and Bonnemort, both likable characters who do not understand the events that sweep them along, shifts the blame from them-which will not be the case in Travail-to a fatalistic view of violence. Of Bonnemort, the narrator affinns: "[ ... ] il cedait it des choses qu'il n'aurait pu dire, it un besoin de faire 9a, a la fascination de ce cou blanc dejeune fille" ( 1 447).37

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.

37 Bonnemort eventually kills Cecile in Book VII, section 5, when the Gregoires give him a pair of shoes as charity. Once morc, the political implications of the act arc

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The last section of Book V ends with the most violent act, committed this time by the women strikers, who castrate MaigraCs body and parade his severed penis on a pick: "La Brule [ ... ] planta tout Ie paquet au bout de son baton; et, Ie portant en I'air, Ie promena it ainsi qu'un drapeau, die se lanya sur la route, suivie de la debandade hurlante des femmes. Des gouttes de sang pleuvaient, cette chair lamentable pendait, comme un dechet de viande it I'etal d'un boucher" ( 1 453). The images of blood and the group of women, referred to as a group of furies, "ce galop de furies," allude to the pe troleuse; furthennore, these images translate the bourgeoisie's con ception of the Commune and the original Revolution. Once again, the scene offers up a tableau of apocalyptic images to the staring bourgeois eye as the ladies in the residence of Hennebeau peek through the window to witness the women's action: "[ ... ] derriere les persiennes, ces dames et ces demoiselles allongeaient Ie cou" ( 1 455). The police come after the mutilation of Maigrat's body and the crowd disbands. Despite Souvarine's absence from the action of Book V, the whole episode is tainted with anarchist tendencies of destruction. The political lesson is clear: revolutionary actions unleash a repressed violence at specific nodal points where power had been applied.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 55. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=55

Undermining Narratives: The Sub-text of Anarchy

In the previous section, I showed that the underground mine served as a repository of a social violence represented symbolically by associating the workers' aspirations with anarchic tendencies. As the strike gains momentum, however, the miners become terrorists and adopt violent means to bring about change, in effect allowing the anarchy of the mine to resurface in a type of return of the repressed. The confusion bctwecn anarchic means and revolutionary aspirations effectively discredits the workers' movement. I would like to now draw an analogy between the role of political violence as portrayed in the novel and the narrative's sub-text of anarchy. Indeed, just as Souvarine vanishes into the shadows at the end of Book VII, anarchist

erased as the narrator excuses Bonnemort's murder under the guise of lunacy: "Quelle raneune, ineonnue de lui-mcme, lentement empoisonnee, etait-elle done montee de ses entrailles a sun erane? L'horreur fit conclure a I'inconscience, c\�tait Ie crime d'un idiot" (1561).

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elements are continuously effaced from the narrative, thus creating an "underground text" analogous to the minco This sub-text can best be deciphered through an analysis of Etienne's evolving ideological position and of the ultimate destruction of the Voreux by Souvarine. Originally, Zola wanted to make Etienne an anarchist: "Ne pas oublier que j'ai fait d'Etienne dans la famille un maniaque de l 'assassinat. II faut que je termine en indiquant cela. Les idees anarchistes developpees en lui [.. .]" (Becker 260, 1 986). The last pages of the novel were to represent Etienne as a militant anarchist: "c'est un soldat de I'anarchie, un adversaire qui raisonne et que se declare contre 1a societe relic qu'elle est faite" (Becker 272, 1 986). Etienne's anarchy is mitigated in the final version of Germinal: as the novel progresses, Etienne' s political penchants oscillate between the evolutionist view of the "possibilistes" represented by Rasseneur and the violent anarchic tenets of Souvarine. His political stance is never clearly defined, and in more than one instance throughout the novel, it is difficult to separate his ideas from those of Souvarine. Even though he is hypnotized by the latter's vision of destruction, Etienne rejects the violence advocated by Souvarine: "Non! non! murmura Etienne, avec un grand geste qui ecartait ces abominables visions, nous n'en sommes pas encore la, chez nous. L'assassinat, I'incendie, jamais! C'est monstrueux, c'est injuste, tous les camarades se leveraient pour etrangler Ie coupable" ( 1 343). In the speech that he delivers at the Plan-des-Dames, however, he uses vocabulary that resembles that of Souvarine: "Ia destruction de l'Etat [ ... J retour a la commune primitive [ ... ]. Cela entrainait une refonte totale de la vieille societe pourrie" ( 1 380). Even his gestures, the arm pointing to the distance, while aimed at the society he opposes, might also be seen as miming the absent anarchist: "11 se tut, mais son bras, toujours tendu dans le vide, designait l'ennemi, la-bas, il ne savait ou, d'un bout a I'autre de la terre" ( 1 384). Indeed, the narrator evokes Souvarine so as to underscore his presence in Etienne's words: "Souvarine, s'il avait daigne venir, aurait applaudi ses idees it mesure qu'il les aurait rcconnucs, contcnt dcs progrcs anarchiqucs de son cleve, satisfait du programme" ( 1 38 1 ) . Despite these radical tendencies, Etienne's aspirations to improve his social status separate him from the very movement that he has initiated, thus questioning the motives and sincerity of his political views. Throughout the novel, Etienne is presented as an opportunist, ready to seize control of the workers' party for the sake of acquiring power over them: "II se paya une paire de bottes fines, et du coup il passa chef, tout Ie coron se groupa autour de lui. Ce furent des

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satisfactions d'amour-propre delicieuses [ ... J etre a la tete des autres, commander, lui si jeunc et qui la veille encore etait un manreuvre, l 'emplissait d'orgueil, agrandissait son reve d'une revolution prochaine, ou il jouerait un role" ( 1 28 1 ). Throughout Book Y, Etienne looks upon the workers with contempt: "[ ... J il s'ctonnait, il s'effarait devant ces brutes dcmuselees par lui, si lentes it s'cmouvoir, terribles ensuite, d'une tcnacitc fcroce dans la coU:re" ( 1 442). A passage that was eventually cut from the novel underscores the change that Etienne has gone through. As the workers throw rocks at the director's house, Etienne searches for a scapegoat to re-route the striker's anger: [ . ] il entendait une autre voix en lui, une voix de raison qui s'ctonnait, qui demandait pourquoi tout eela. 11 n'avait riell voulu de ees ehoscs, comment .

.

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pouvait-il se faire que, parti pour Jean-Bart dans Ie but d'agir froidement et d'empecher un desastre, il achevat la journt.'e, de violence en violence, par assieger I'hotel du directeur? .. maintcnant que des pierrcs craflaient deja la fa9ade de I'hotel, i l cherchait, sans la trouver, sur quelle proie legitime il devail lancer la bande, afin d'cvilcr de plus grand malheurs ( 1 44 1 ).

The use of the word "legitime" here implies that the director of the company is not responsible for the miners' dismal state, a fact that is contradicted by his actions throughout the novel. Etienne then goes into a bar called the Tison, lured on by Rasseneur who calls him. In the original draft of the novel, Souvarine, rather than Rasseneur, summons him to the bar. Not surprisingly, Souvarine criticizes the efforts of the strikers and concludes with his usual credo for violence: "Un seul tonneau de poudre, dans la maison, en face, <;a valait mieux" ( 1 924). The "maison en face" refers obviously to Hennebeau �s house; Etienne's protection of the director's residence thus contrasts sharply with Souvarine's plan for its destruction. The scene absolves Etienne of his early flirting with anarchism and paves the way for the last pages of the novel, when he repudiates any type of violence to bring about social change. Etienne begins to question the role of violence in bringing about social justice as he condemns the miners'actions. After "Ia journee terrible" ( 1 457), Etienne seeks refuge in leanlin's secret hideout. H e ventures sporadically out of i t at night to survey the countryside; h e finds a series of ruins, as i f society had already been destroyed from class warfare: "C'etait en effet, dans Ie pays entier, un long retentissement de ruines" ( 1 462). Another passage cut from the original draft of the novel signals the progressive effacement of anarchy in Etienne's political vision. As he surveys the countryside at the beginning of the si xth book, the original version contained another meeting with Souvarine which inspires in Etienne apocalyptic visions

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of destruction: " [ ... ] Ie mal n\�tait jamais assez grand, il rcvait it son tour de destruction, une sccousse profonde qui engloutirait une Fosse entiere, sans trouver Ie courage d'allumer Ie baril de poudre dont pariait Ie machineur;38 et des phrases lui revenaient, 1a necessite d'un effroyable attentat pour epouvanter les puissants et reveillcr Ie peuple" (1 927). Souvarine's influence is highlighted in this passage through the words «a son tour" and the explicit reference to the "machineur."39 Whereas Etienne's anarchic sub-text is finally domesticated through an ideology of peace, the Vorcux's cntropic tendencies arc not controlled and lead to the collapse of the mine. In the very first scene of the novel, when Etienne arrives at Montsou, the narrative point of view comes i n and out of tocus to ettectively create a sense of confusion: "Depuis une heure, il [Etienne] avanyait ainsi, lorsque sur la gauche, it deux k ilometres de Montsou, il aperyut des feux rouges, trois brasiers brulant au plein air, et comme suspendus. [ ... ] Un chemin creux s'enfonyait. Tout disparut" ( 1 1 34). The evanescent fires that suddenly drop from view give way to another vision:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 58. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=58

[...] au ras du sol, un autre spectacle venait de l'arrcter. C'etait une masse lourde, un tas 6cmse des constructions, d'ou se dressait la silhouette d'une cheminee d'usine; [...] et de cene apparition fantastique, noyee de nuit et de fumee, une seule voix montait, la rcspimtion grosse et longue d'un echappement de vapeur, qu'on ne voyait point ( 1 1 34). The image of the Voreux hides behind the smoke and vapor that envelops it, recalling the Parisian "brume" that Prendergast's identi fies as the sign of entropi c narration (72). For the beginning of a natu ralist novel, supposed to grasp "the real," Germinal does much to distort the genre by using techniques more akin to the fantastic: the Voreux is presented as a space where reality is questioned. When

38 In an intelView with a journalist from Le M(I{in conducted in March of 1885, lola

concludes that the French do not have the courage to carry out the revolution. It is for this reason that the violent wing of revolutionary thought is ascribed to Souvarine rather than Etienne: "11 y a un grand mouvement social qui se prepare, une aspiration de justice dont il faut tenir compte, sinon la vieille societe sera balayee. Cependant, je ne pense pas que Ie mouvement commencera en France, notre race cst trap amoUie. Cest meme pour cela que, dans mon roman, c'est dans un Russe que j'ai incarne Ie socialismc violent" (lola, Corn..'5polldal1ce V. 27). 39 Henri Mittcrand has insightfully affinncd of this passage: "[...1 ellcs [les suppressions] font disparaitrc de la pensee d'Etienne tout relent d'anarchisme" ( 1 927).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 59. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=59

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Etienne descends into the mine, for example, he experiences the same evanescent quality that permeates the very first pages of the novel: "Enfin, une secousse I 'ebranla, et tout sombra; l es obj ets autour de lui s'envolerent, tandis qu'il eprouvait un vertige anxieux de chute, qui lui tirait les entrailles. [ ... J il resta etourdi, n'ayant plus la perception nette de ses sensations" (1 159). The "tout sombra" in this passage corresponds to the "tout disparut" of the opening lines, thus empha sizing the dream-like quality of the mine. Once inside the mine, Etienne loses all of his bearings, stumbling at every step and kn ocki n g his head against the roof, as he fails to understand the complex under ground topography: "Le jeune homme butait it chaque pas, s'embar rassait les pieds dans les rails. [...J Des les premieres enjambees, Etienne se meurtrit de 1a tete et des coudes. Le toit en pente descendait si bas, que sur des longueurs de vingt et trente metres, il devait marcher casse en deux. L'eau arrivait aux chevilles [.. . J" ( 1 1 60, 1 1 62).40 Since the scene is filte red th rough Etienne's viewpoint, th e readers also get "lost" in the mine as they follow his traj ectory . The blurring of narrative focus i n these passages contrasts sharply with the bourgeois gaze that relies on a stable point of view. The destruction of the Voreux provoked by Souvarine's "propa gande par Ie fait" follows the same pattern as that of the workers' violence in Book V. Once again, the details of destruction are in scribed within an apocalyptic narrative of natural catastrophes, the now common political strategy used throughout the novel to discredit any subversive act. Describing the final moments of the Voreux, Zola writes: "Des detonations souterraines eclataient, toute une artillerie monstrueuse canonnant Ie gouffre. A la surface, les dernieres constructions se culbutaient, s'ecrasaient [... J une sorte de tourbillon emporta les debris du criblage et de la salle de rccette" ( 1 546-47). The vocabulary used in this passage, "eclataient" and "tourbillons," as well as the images of the collapsing structures, borrow heavily from the cataclysmic scenes that had been relegated to the underground mine. The symbolic meaning of this destruction refers to the prophetic class

40 The precarious "reality" of the mine is a leit-motif of Germinal. In fact, several scenes in the novel arc akin to the fantastic, as workers lose a grasp of "reality" to conjure up imaginary worlds. At the end of the novel, for example, when Etienne and Catherine arc trapped underground, their sense of reality is challenged as they imagine a radiant day: [ . ] une contagion cbranlait sa tCt� plus sulid�, il perdit la sensation juste du reel. ( ...] Les bourdonnements de ses oreilles ctuient devenus des munnures d'eau courante, des chants d'oiseaux" (1 577). "

..

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warfare announced throughout the novel which finally erupts as the revolutionary power of the workers destroys the social structures put in place by the capitalist system.41 As Etienne reflects upon the event, he concludes: "c'etait un coup d'epaule donne a 1a societe en mine, et ils [les bourgeois] en avaient entendu Ie craquement sous leurs pas, et ils sentaient manter d'autres secousses, toujours d'autres, jusqu' a ce que Ie vieil edifice, ebrani6, s'effondnit, s'engloutit comme Ie Vareux, coulant a I'abime" (1 590, emphasis added). The metaphor of the volcano, which allows an analogy between a natural catastrophe on the one hand and an upward movement from the mine to the surface on the other, is used throughout the scene. Zola describes the noises coming from the falling structures as "des grondements de volcan en eruption" and he compares the hole left behind after the sinking of the Voreux as "ce cratere de volcan" ( 1 545-47). Furthermore, the vertical movement is underscored when he writes: '''C'etait la plaie qui s'agrandissait toujours: I'eboulement, commence par Ie bas, montait, se rapprochait de la surface" (1545). The "plaie" in the passage evokes the revolutionary potential of the lower classes that will inevitably be violently unleashed. As the collapse of the Voreux challenges the bourgeois order, it also tests the naturalist's project of encompassing the real. As a capitalist machine producing coal-the energy source par excellence of the nineteenth century-the Voreux could not escape the consequences of the second law of thennodynamics: since an unavoidable amount of useful energy must be lost in the transfer of heat to work, entropy was interpreted by popular scienti fic treatises as a sure sign of an Armageddon. The ultimate destruction of the Voreux could thus be understood as a sign of entropic decay: La chaudicre, ou plus g6n6ralcment la machine a vapeur, constitue [ .. ] Ie modele unique, jusqu' a Paris, de tout(.'!; les machines, n�elles ou imaginaires, apparues dans I'reuvre de Zola. [ ] C'est Ie cas dej a du Voreux qui, tnJverse par la circulation de ses eaux souterraines, chaufTe par les flammes de son incendie interieur, se prcsente comme une gigantesque chaudiere, toujours menacee par I'explosion et la catastrophe (Noiray 323, 1981). .

...

41 The narrdtor compares the ruins of the Voreux to a whole city, thus extending the frdmework of the scene to predict further strife: "Sous I'azur tendre de la belle journcc, c'etait un cloaquc, les ruines d'une ville abimee et fondue dans de la bOlle" ( 1 557).

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By enlarging the framework from the Voreux to capitalist production, the narrative suggests that this particular economic system is doomed to its own destruction. Furthermore, the descriptions of the Voreux as it falls apart illustrate the "evanescent" quality of the naturalist narrative: Tout Ie earreau de la mine y avait suivi les batimenis, les treteaux gigantesques, les passerellcs avec leun; rails, un train complet de berlines, trois wagons; sans t de perches coupees, avalees comme des compter la provision des bois, une fuaie pailles. Au fond, on ne distinguait plus qu'un gachis de poutres, de briques, de fer, de platre, d'affreux restes plies, enchevetres, salis, dans cel enragemenl de la catastrophe (1547).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 61. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=61

The proliferation of juxtaposed details dissec·ts th e real to th e point of

making the reality depicted almost impossible to seize by a single point of view. The sequence of nouns-"Ies treteaux, les passarelles, un train, wagons, poutres, briques, fer, platre"-and the list of adjectives-"plies, enchevetres, salis"-rnakes it difficult to provide a stable picture of the catastrophe. As Prendergast eloquently puts it: "The energy of its [Zola's writing] descriptive efforts carries with it a high quotient of entropy; the more detailed (and hence in principle the more exhaustive) the descriptions become, the more difficult they are to visualize or to hold within a stable visual frame" (7 1). The fact that the whole scene is framed by Souvarine's gaze-"Et, la-haut, sur le terri, dans la cabane de Bonnemort, il y avait, assis par terre, un homme, Souvarine, qui ne s'etait pas eloigne, et qui regardait" ( 1 540)-emphasizes the anarchic quality of the scene. As opposed to the bourgeois gaze framed by keyholes, windows and cracks to fix a stable viewpoint, Souvarine's focuses on the slow dissolution of these narrative strategies. The regulatory power invested in realist represent ation also has an unconscious situated in an anarchic subtext which constantly threatens coherence with fragmentation. Once Souvarine witnesses the collapse of the mine, he disappears-"son ombre diminua, se fondit avec I'ombre" ( 1 548) into a mysterious "la-bas" to continue sowing terror: "It altait [. . J it I'extermination, partout Oil it y aurait de la dynamite, pour faire sauter les villes et les hommes. Ce sera lui, sans doute, quand la bourgeoisie agonisante entendra, sous elle, it chacun de ses pas, eclater Ie pave des rues" ( 1 548). An example of the most extreme type of revolutionary, the anarchist must be evacuated from the narrative. Yet, through his association with terrorism and entropy, Souvarine also represents a total questioning of the existing capitalist and symbolic system-a consciousness that, albeit chastised, remains a revolutionary voice. .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 62. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=62

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The catastrophe extends to the very end of the novel, since it provokes the flooding o f the mine that entraps Etienne and Catherine. Etienne's ultimate absolution from violence comes after Souvarinc's vanishing act. As he is pulled out of the mine, Negrel, representing the bourgeois forces, embraces Etienne, the worker, in a symbolic act of reconciliation: "ces deux hommes qui se meprisaient, I'ouvrier revolt\.\ Ie chef sceptique, se jeterent au COli I'un de I'autre, sanglo terent a grands sanglots, dans Ie bouleversement profond de loute l 'hurnanite qui etait en cux" (1 580). That the scene of reconciliation happens after the anarchist's disappearance suggests that only through the effacement of anarchy can the narrative move into a utopian mode. Rather than a mythical or narrative strategy, the effacement of anarchy corresponds to an ideological move, constructing the anarchist as the other to be eliminated in order for the bourgeois order to remain intact: the symbolic embrace reveals the false consciousness of class hannony through a utopian discourse. This particular gambit is reproduced in the final pages. In the initial plan for Germinal, Zola wanted to give the last word to Souvarine: "Si je garde Souvorine [sic] a la fin, je puis lui faire dire le demier mot. Tout detruire. Etienne s'en va, est de son avis. Je montre Etienne s'en allant un soir par la pluie, comme il est arrive un matin par la gelee" (Becker 289, 1 986). The last pages were to represent Etienne as a militant anarchist: "c'est un soldat de I'anarchie, un adversaire qui raisonne et qui se declare contre la societe telle qu'elle est faite" (Becker 272, 1 986). Instead, Zola opted to erase the anarchist from the last scene and give an optimistic portrayal of Etienne-walking this time in the midst of a regenerating spring towards Paris, where he is to join Pluchart, a socialist leader. Reflecting on the role of violence in bringing about social reform, Etienne concludes against it, effectively repudiating Souvarine and anarchy:42 "Et il songeait a present que la violence peut-etre ne h3ta1t pas les choses. Des cables coupes, des rails arraches, des Jampes cassees, quelle inutile besogne! Cela valait bien la peine de galoper it trois mille, cn unc bandc dcvastatricc! Vagucmcnt, il dcvinait que 1a legalite, un jour, pouvait etre plus terrible" ( 1 590). Even more surprising, Etienne suggests that workers should not join unions until

42 Zola had already drown

similar conclusions in his article about Russian nihilists. Criticizing their tactics, he writes: "On ne plie violemment les hommes, du jour au lendemain, a un etat politique arrete d'avance. Le fer et Ie feu n'y feront rien" (566-7).

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the laws permit it: "Qui, la Maheude Ie disait bien avec son bon sens, ce serait Ie grand coup: s'enrcgimenter tranquillement, se connaitre, se reunir en syndicats, lorsque les lois Ie permettraient" ( 1 590, emphasis added). Etienne has become a "'possibiliste," advocating social change only within the parameters established by the law. The images of germination in this last scene contrast sharply with the misery exposed throughout the novel: "Ou £lane nourricier jaillissait la vie, les bourgeons crevaient en feuilles vertes, les champs tressaillaient de la poussee des herbes" ( 1 59 1 ). The natural process implied by the metaphors of birth locates social justice in a gradual evolution of change. The utopian images meant to annul any type of violence, however, are contradicted as well, indicating that the voice of Souvarine has not been completely silenced.43 Alongside the thoughts of rebirth, Etienne evokes a bloody revolution: "[ ... ] dans cette attente d'un envahissement des barbares, regenerant les vieilles nations caduques, reparaissait sa foi absolue it une revolution prochaine, la vraie, celie des travailleurs, dont l'incendie embraserait la fin du siecle de cette pourpre de soleil levant. qu'il regardait saigner au ciel" ( 1 589). The final sentence of the novel ends with this impending revolution on the horizon as the narrative hesitates between peace and violence: "Des hommes poussaient, une armee noire, vengeresse, qui germait lente ment dans les sillons. grandissait pour les recoltes du siecle futur, ct dont la gennination allait faire bientot edafer la terre" ( 1 591, emphasis added). Compared to Souvarine's vanishing act, however, "Ce sera lui, sans doute, quand la bourgeoisie agonisante entrendra, sous elle, it chacun de ses pas, edater Ie pave des rues" ( 1 548, emphasis added}-Etienne's disappearance posits an untenable contradiction through images of a violent pastoral which fails to reconcile the reality of class antagonism with the utopian wish-fantasy of its peaceful resolution.

43 Indeed, Souvarine's nihilist credo continues to haunt the Rougoll-Macquarl to the very end. As Janice Best has aptly suggested, his message of total destruction is carried on by Maurice in La Debacle and even by Felicite in Le DOC/ellr Pascal: "Felicile, qui a assiste a la mort dc Macquarl sans rien faire pour l'empCcher de brG.1er vif, purifie ainsi par deux fois I'image de sa famille, loul comme Souvarine voulait purifier la terre par I 'incendie. ( ...J En mettant Ie feu aux quatre coins de Paris, Maurice semble accomplir l'reuvre de destmction voulue par Souvarine" (Best 54, 2003).

Chapter 2 Anarchy as Narrative Capital:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 64. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=64

The Emplotment of Terrorism in Paris

In the last chapter, we analyzed the role of anarchy in Germinal and concluded that, even though the narrative tries to efface SOllvarine, his subversive politics remain a viable option throughout the novel. From Montsou to Montmartre, from "province" to Paris, we shift topological spaces as we begin our second chapter, in which we will analyze the element of anarchy in Zola's next important "socialist" novel, Paris. I The choice of Paris, as a continuation of Germinal, needs to be examined. The latter books of Les Rougon Macquart series either evacuate the political altogether (L 'CEuvre, Le Reve, La Bete hllmaine, Le Doc/eur Pascal) or use it as a back-drop upon which to graft the narrative (La Terre, L 'Argent, La Debiicle). Certainly, La Terre and La Debiicle include many ideological debates, but neither makes these contlicts the central theme of the novel. The first books written after Les Rougon-Macquart, Lourdes and Rome, both have specific ideological underpinnings: the debate bctwcen faith and science in the former; the politics of Leon XIII and the shifting alliances of the Church in the latter. Again, although these two novels make references to contemporary social debates, they present only a narrow segment of nineteenth-century political thought. With Paris, Zola returns to the general ideological frescoes he had painted in Germinal. From its initial conception, Zola mentioned that Paris would treat the socialist question: "On trouvera dans Paris 'une incursion dans I'au-dela,' 'de l ' idealisme,' 'I'avenir du socialisme,'

I Unless otherwise stated, all references to the novel come from Emile Zola's (Euvres Completes (Volume VII) of the Cercle du Livre Precieux edition by Henri Mitterand ( 1966).

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'une apothcose'" (Ternois 248). When a journalist asked him what he would specifically say about the socialist movement in his work, Zola responded: '«;Je n'ai aucune idee exacte sur cette question, bien que j e me propose de 1a traiter... Le socialisme aura s a part dans mon livre, !TIais je ne sais pas ce qu'cllc sera'" (Ternois 249). In the Ebauche to Lourdes, Zola makes it explicit that he wants to portray in his novel all the social currents of the time: '''L'histoire du socialisme ... L'etat tres net de la question sociale. Les differentes eco1es ... , les solutions proposees... Entin loute la bataille sociale dans sa violence, la lutte pour 13 vie. Et a I'horizon, 13 grande aurore qui se leve'" (Ternois 29 1 ). That Germinal reveals itself as the background text that informs this desire, a palimpsest of sorts, becomes evident when he writes: "�Un grand fond de souffrances, comme dans � Gerl1linar ... Un coin de faubourg abominable, I'enfer de Paris ... Le cri des miserables aboutis sant au monde nouveau'" (Ternois 2 9 1 ). Furthermore, and of utmost importance to the present study, anarchy becomes the central political discourse in the novel, thus providing an excellent opportunity to study Zola's own evolving and shifting thoughts on the matter. As Paris will demonstrate, Souvarine's disappearance into the enigmatic "la-bas," at the end of Germinal, does not signal Zola's last word on anarchy. Paris is the last episode of the trilogy entitled Les Trois VilIes, in which the reader follows the adventures of a single character, a priest named Pierre Froment, through his voyages to Lourdes, Rome and the French capital. The physical journey is accompanied by a spiritual one, in which Pierre loses all faith in the Catholic dogma, falling into a nihilist and solipsistic denial of the world, only to be rescued at the end of Paris through his marriage with Marie and the foundation of his own family. The last novel in the series thus weaves together two parallel stories: in the style of "scenes de la vie privee," we have a sentimental education: the priest's reunification with his brother Guillaume, his love for his sibling's fiancee, and his eventual marriage to her; in the style of "scenes de la vie publique," we have a political plot that confounds a terrorist attack by Guillaume's friend, Salvat, and the search and chase for the culprit throughout the novel, culminating in his execution. The sentimental education is doubled by two love affairs, a sterile, "symbolist" one between la Princesse de Rosemonde and Hyacinthe Duvillard, and an "incest"-Iike triangle

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affair that recalls the plot of La Curee, between La Baronne Duvillard, Gerard de Quinsac, and Camille Duvillard. 2 The political intrigue, i n turn, is doubled by a disguised Panama scandal, "I 'affaire des Che mins de fer africains," and the vicissitudes of a Parliament in crisis which utilizes the anarchist attack as a red-herring to detract attention from its own corruption. The narrative structure is highly organized and corseted: five books divided each into five sections follow the classical line of exposition, development and resolution. The two brothers get reunited after many years of separation at the site of Salvat's terrorist attack, in front of Baron Duvillard's house, the powerful and rich banker no doubt modeled after the Rothschilds. The development of their bond reaches its climax with Guillaume's symbolic gift of his fiancee Marie to Pierre. Shortly after Salvat's execution, Guillaume decides to use one of his new powerful explosives to destroy the Sacf(!-Creur, but Pierre unveils his plot and impedes him from obliterating the religious and tourist mecca of the Parisian landscape. The novel ends with Marie offering her baby to Paris, now conceptualized as a vast wheat field awaiting the new harvest ofjustice. As can be gathered from the short summary of the novel and its prodigious title, never before had Zola's will to totality been so strong. In fact, the novelist tries to do for the Third Republic in a single volume what he had done for the Second Empire in twenty. Instead of dividing various milieux and studying them separately, he amal gamates them into one single narrative as he provides a series of tableaux of the social groups that composed fin de siecle Paris. A catalogue of the different groups represented includes anarchists, workers, priests, criminals, the dying aristocracy, the established bourgeoisie, ministers, judges, the police, la cocotte, intellectuals, students, artists, decadents, journalists. These groups are depicted in

2 The rich and powerful Duvillard family is central to the plot of Paris as representative of the haule bourgeoi!>·ie. The head of the family, Le Baron Duvillard, is unfaithful to his wife, La Baronne, with the cocotte Silviane. His son, Hyacinthe, is a symbolist pact dcscribed as a "faincanf' attractcd to all sorts of vices: "Ecolicr execrable, it avait decide dc ne ricn fairc, dans un mepris egal de toutes les professions; [. ] fanfaron lui-memc de vices et de crimes [ .. ]" ( 1 1 98). His sister and mother compete for the young aristocrat Gerard de Quinsac. La Princesse de Rosemomle, also an aristocrat and a personality of the Parisian fashionable society, is interested by the anarchist mode ("C'est plein d'anarchistes, it present, dans son salon" (1202)). ..

.

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their corresponding settings, such as the Parliament, the "hotels par ticuiiers," the poor neighborhoods, the court house, the aristocratic quarters, the theater, or the factory. Given the comp lexi ty of the plot and the myriad elements that constitute it, it should come as no

surprise that the naturalist genre's capacity of assimilation will be tested throughout the narrative; as Nicholas White has aptly stated: "The Naturalist project of imprisoning all subject matter within a panopticon of novelistic omniscience faces its ultimate test before the p l ural narratives of the city where, by definition, 'at every instant, there is more than the eye can see ' " (203, 1 997). In a similar vein, Clive Thomson has asserted: HMais Zola desire que Paris soit [ . J e n quelque sorte, la conclusion de toute son ocuvre jusque-Ia, Ie resume, selon son propre dire, de toutes les grandes questions du dix-neuvieme siec1e" ( 1 22, "Typologie"). Although we can certainly find "'un air de famille" between Les Rougon-Macquart and Paris, there are distinct differences as welJ.3 ..

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For one, the time setting has completely changed, as Zola wanted to

depict the Second Empire in his former project and now turns to the immediate history of the Third Republic. Furthermore, new debates had come to the fore and Zola's main thrust in the novel is to contribute to the ongoing conflict, sparked by polemical articles, notably written by Brunetiere, about the so-called "banqueroute de 1a science" (Ternois 552). Finally, even though Zola's work had been constantly under attack-one only needs to recall Louis Ulbach's early and vicious attack against Therese Raquin-the war against naturalism had gained momentum since the 1 880s. After the publication of La Terre, in the summer of 1 887, Brunetiere had announced the '''banqueroute du naturalisme" (Ternois 1 1 5), and the infamous "Manifeste des Cinq" was published in Le Figaro of August 1 8th of the same year.4 This trend was reinforced by Jules Huret' s

3 The links between these two works have not been fully studied. Some superficinl parallcls between the two series would include the Duvillards with the Saccard family of La Curee and Silviane with Nana. See in particular Kranowski's study, Paris dans les romans d'Emile lola, especially pp. 140-145. 4 "Le Manifesle de Cinq" was a vitupemtive document condemning Zola's La Terre for its vulgar tone: "Non seulement l'observation est superficielle, les trues demodes, la narration commune 1.::1 dcpourvul.:: til.:: camctcristiqul.::s, mais la note orduricre est exacerbce encore, descendue it des saletcs si basses que, par instants, on se croirait devant un recueil de scatologic" (Zola, Les ROllgon-Macquart IV, Bibliotheque de la

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literary survey published in L 'Echo de Paris of 1 8 9 1 , in which Barn�s, France and Lemaitre all concurred with Brunetiere's prophetic words (Ternois 140-4 1 ). lola responded this time not by a counter-attack, but rather by modifying his intentions. In 1 891 , he even admits that the "ecole naturaliste" is possibly moribund, and he foresees enlarging his theoretical framework to allow for a more "humanistic" vision: '" Je crois it une peinture de la verite plus large, plus complexe, it une ouverture plus grande sur I'humanite, it une sorte de classicisme du naturalisme'" (Ternois 1 45). In Paris, then, lola affirms his commit ment to an ideological position, rejecting the bourgeois society and the religious "ralliement" of the 90s and advocating his hope in the eternal progress of science to unveil the '''truth.'' At the same time, he con cedes victory to the detractors of naturalism by enlarging his hereditary and fatalistic model to incorporate a more flexible frame work. He even uses words that he would have repudiated a few years before; talking about his new project of a trilogy in 1 892, he states: '" Ma trilogie ... qui contiendra Ie bilan du siecie, sera moins pessimiste que Ie reste de mon ceuvre, et animee d'un souffle d'ideal et d'espoir'" (Temois 249). For a long time, critics stayed away from Paris and Les Trois VilIes, forcing Henri Mitterand, the great lola scholar, to state i n 1990: "11 est dommage que ce troisieme lola reste mal connu, relati vement peu ctudic. [... J Zola en 1 900... Qui ccrira ce livre" (255)?5 I n fact, Rene Ternois's 1 96 1 20la et son temps: Lourdes. Rome, Paris still remains the most thorough study about the novel. Two concurring facts help to explain why this particular work had been overlooked by scholars. First and foremost, Paris was published in serial form in Le Journal, starting in the fall of 1 897 and ending in February 9th, 1 89 8 (Temois 670). Experts on lola will immediately associate these dates not with one of his works, but rather with his implication in the Dreyfus affair. Indeed, the famous "J'accuse" was published in L 'Au rare of January 1 3th, 1 898 and Zola's first trial began in February 7th,

P[ciade, 1 528). The diatribe was written by five young authors-Paul Bonnetin, J . H. Rosny, Lucien Deseaves, Paul Margueritte and Gusave t Guiehes (ibid, 1 525). 5 Henri Miuerand describes the "third lola" as the author of the two cycles, Les Trois Villes et Les Quatre Evallgiles. He writes in Zol(l: L 'Histoire el la jietioll: "Lc troisicmc Zo[a est bien ec[ui de celte periode, qui couvre dix annecs de sa vie: de I annee 1 892, qui fait de lui Ie pelerin de Lourdes, et qui voit [a preparation du cycle des Troi5 Vilfe5, jusqu'iI l'annee 1 902, dont Zo[a ne connaitra pas les demiers mois" (251 ) ,

'

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thus two days before the last episode of Paris appeared in the papers. The Dreyfus affair has certainly eclipsed the importance of any of the novels Zola wrote at the end of his life, and many readers have judged them retroactively, finding in them a discrepancy between Zola�s political stance as an intellectual and his supposed retreat from action espoused in Paris:6

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Le roman decevait ceux qui, apres J'accllse, auraient voulu touer hautement Ie romander. On comprcnd Icur deception. ( ... ] On y [Paris] voyail un perc ct ses trois gmnds gar90ns qui aimaicnt la science et travaillaient; de leur atelier, tout en haul de Montmartre, ils contcmplaicnt Paris, mais ils ne se mclaient pas it la vic. Pour monlrer enfin des hommes libres, Zola avait dG les isoler comme des ctres d'exception, les scparcr du monde, les preserver (Ternois 674).

The other fact that has contributed to the neglect of Paris is the sheer weight of Les Rougon-Macquart in Zola's corpus. Indeed, any commentary on Les Trois Villes and Les Quatre Evangiles has to take into consideration the tradition of the family saga and refer back to it as point of comparison. Two logical conclusions have been inferred from the sequential space occupied by Les Trois Vil/es within Zola's reuvre: they have been judged as either an extension of Les Rougon Macquart, rehashing old themes and characters, or as a transition into the utopian novels of Les Quatre Evangiles. These positions are not entirely incompatible, and it can be shown that an clement of both can be found in Paris. The 2 1 S! century might perhaps be kinder-or in any case, more attentive-to the "troisieme Zola." Indeed, starting in the second half of the 1 990s, scholars became more and more interested in this novel, a fact attested to by the number of articles appearing in scholarly journals about Paris. Furthermore, two new editions of the work made

6 Ferguson tries to reconcile Paris with the Dreyfus affair by stating that the utopian overtones of the novel foreshadows Zola's stance during the affair: " A close readin g of Paris reveals [ ] that the writer was in fact prepari ng himself for the role that he invested with such conviction and performed with such consummate skill. [...] What is notable about Zola's writing during the Dreyfus affair is the dissociation of his eminently political act from a particular time and from a particular space. [ ... ] In the Dreyfus affair Zola had only to follow the logic of his own metaphorical constructions, a 'sower' of li ght and truth, who, like his fictional chamctcrs, cultivates the future harvest of truth and justice" (213, 217, 219). See also her article p ublished in Les Calliers l1aturalistes, "De Paris a I'affaire Dreyfus: Ie pareours de I'intellectuel." ...

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it more available to a wider public: Henri Mitterand's published by Stock in 1998 and Jacques Noiray's published by Gallimard/Folio in 2002. It would be difficult to speculate on the reasons for this surge of interest, though it might be explained in part by echoes between fin de siecle phantasms and millenarian fears as well as the centrality of terrorism in the novel and the rise of terrorist incidents in the 1 990s the year 1 995 been particularly notorious for the attentats in both the Tokyo and Paris metro systems-and the impact of the September I l lh attacks. Of the many problems represented in the novel, three in particular have arrested the attention of critics-the image of the machine, the urban tradition, and the problem of ideology. Jacques Noiray�s meticulous study Le Romancier et la machine: L 'image de la machine dans Ie roman franr;ais (1850-1900) : Cuniver,. de 2010 (/) ( 1 98 1 ) traces the evolution of the theme of the machine in Zola's works, from a thermodynamic model, which dominates Les Rougon-Macquart series, to an electric model that permeates the most optimistic novels of the latter period. Noiray contributes to my analysis of Paris, since such technological changes signal a re-configuration of economic forces that have lasting effects on the role of anarchy in the narrative. Other critics, interested in urban spaces, have tried to replace Paris within the long standing nineteenth-century tradition of urban literary representations of the city of lights. Repeatedly, these studies point out Zola's shortcomings, stressing either his lack of originality within this tradition, or his failure to understand the city. Kranowski, in his Paris dans les romans d 'Emile Zola, concludes by assimilating Zola's vision to that of Hugo. Indeed, many critics revel in tracing the romantic roots of the metaphors used by Zola to describe the city. 7 The negative assessment of the work is revisited in Ferguson's last chapter of her Paris as Revolution: Writing the Nineteenth-Centll1Y City ( 1 994) and in Nicholas White's article "Reconstructing the City in Zola's Paris" ( 1 997), themes of which were reprinted in his book Family in Crisis ill Late Nineteenth-Centwy French Fiction ( 1 999). White claims that, given Paris's "status as saturated cultural icon" (201), Zola's main objective--one that he never attains, according to White (2 1 1 }-lies in finding an adequate metaphor for

7 Sec, for example, Pierre Citron' s "Quelques aspects rornantiques du Paris de Zola" in Les Cahiers natura/isles, 1963, pp. 47-56.

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the city. Similarly, Ferguson advances the point that the pastoral images dominating the narrative at the very end of the novel "de urbanize" the city by severing it from any "real" context-what she calls a metaphor steering away from its metonymical roots: "Paris confirms this shift away from metonymy. The cask of wine, of which Zola makes so much as a metaphor for the city and the civilization beyond, and, later, the field have nothing to do with Paris. Lacking metonymical associations, they seem foreign, imposed from without, unjustified (208). In the end, then, Paris is less an urban novel than a work about the longing for a non-urban space that abstracts the very foundation upon which it rests. The paradoxes that plague the urban status are reproduced at the ideological level. Whereas Laville diagnoses a retreat from the political at the heart of a novel that means to paint an ideological fresco of fin de siecle France, Mollier affirms that Zola moved closer to socialism after 1 891 evinced in his latter works. Noiray offers an insightful argument that moves away from content and locates ideology in the use of imagery which he subsumes under four broad categories: disorder, darkness, filth and purification. Though this matrix is relevant to my own analysis, especially since both disorder and purification fall under the purview of anarchists and entropy, Noiray fails to identify the ideology that underlies these symbolic representations. He thus concludes similarly to Laville: "Puisque 1a politique est impuissante, il faut sortir de la politique. Telle est 1a leyon de Paris, telle sera l' idee-force des Evangiles a venir" (2 1 7, 2000). I refer once more to Eisenzweig's Fictions de I 'allarchisme (2001) as a compelling theoretical framework to understand the role of ideology in general and anarchism in particular with regards to Zola�s realist project. As explained in the introduction, for Eisenzweig, anarchy fundamentally eludes representation. By tackling in Paris the series of anarchist altentals of the 1 890s, Zola's project was bound to be unsuccessful, for terrorism-if it is to inspire terror-has to escape narrative conventions. Eisenzweig provocatively asks: "Un acte tcrroriste prcvu est-il encore terroriste?" (226). I would like to inscribe my own study within the tradition of these scholars, showing that these three strands-the entropic machine, the urban landscape, the terrorist bomb-coalesce in the explosive narrative of Paris. First, I will srudy how socialist and anarchist discourses are superimposed upon the narrative without being integrated into it. This can be considered a first level of ideological engagement on the part of Zola. I wil l then shift the problem by demonstrating how anarchy does however infiltrate the book's

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 71. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=71

"

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political message without passing through the more didactic scenes of the novel. Second, I will unmask the way that narrative and anarchy collude in the emplotment of the story and analyze the role of terrorism in this process. Rather than incompatible, narrative and terror are imbricate, terror defining the limits of representation and exposing its mechanisms. Finally, I will study the way the narrative evacuates any trace of violence from revolutionary action, effectively neutralizing anarchist tactics; whereas in Germinal, the utopian mode was balanced by a realistic portrayal of class divisions, Paris is not successful in achieving this equilibrium. I conclude the chapter with some thoughts on the technological and economic shifts in French society that appear in Zola's novel and its repercussions on the portrayal of anarchy in Paris. The irony, of course, is that the overdetermined anarchist plot serves also as my guiding framework, an explosive argument that reconfigures violence to keep it at bay so as to forge a coherent (I hope) expose.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 72. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=72

The Political Discourse in Paris

Even though Zola claims to descri be the essential movements within the socialist tradition of the nineteenth century, the novel does not adequately represent these tendencies. To fulfill the "socialist" component, Zola limited himself to lengthy didactic dialogues between stock characters, disciples of different socialist schools: thus, Morin's dogma amalgamates Proudhon's and Auguste Comte�s theories; Bache represents "Ie mouvement humanitaire de 48: Saint Simon, Fourier, CabeL." (Ternois 143); Mcge follows Guesde's lead. These characters are at the margins of the novel's action and Zola never integrates them successfully into the narrative. In fact, the encyclopedic and superficial treatment of these movements is not surprising, given the fact that Zola only consulted the Grand Dictionflaire Universe! du XIXe Siecle to insert these passages in the novel (Ternois 644). Ternois explains: "II [Zola] n'a pas eu la curiositc de fcuilleter les livres dc Fouricr, de Proudhon ct dc Comtc pour y eueillir quelques phrases, les preter a ses personnages et imaginer des dialogues. II ne sait pas eerire des dialogues et ses personnages episodiques ne I'interessent pas" (646). Not unlike Etienne in Germinal, who reads various political treatises without

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 73. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=73

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digesting them, the reader of Paris gets a cursory knowledge of these socialist schools.8 In fact, Zola was much more interested in anarchy than in its socialist counterpart. When he first announced to the press his project for this novel in September 1 892, anarchy was present in the national arena, as a wave of terrorist attacks had taken place in the capitai. After the explosions in March and April of that year, the notorious Ravachol was executed in July. In April 25, Zola had an interview with Jean Carrere from the Figaro in which he compared the anar chists to "poets": "Les anarchistes sont des poetes. C'est I'eternelle poesie noire, vieille comme l'humanite, carnme Ie mal, cornme 1a douleur" (Ternois 173). Furthermore, from its inception, Zola wanted to have two characters, one of whom would be "un anarchiste militant," in whom we recognize Guillaume Froment. When Zola thus announces his intention of expanding the original "livre sur la souffrance humaine" that became Lourdes into a trilogy named Les Trois VilIes, there is no doubt that the recent events were partly responsible for his choice of Paris as a setting for the last volume of the series. By July 1 893, Zola had consolidated some of his ideas about Paris and anarchy, as attested to by the Ebauche that he wrote at that time for Lourdes. The presence of Germinal is again very important at this embryonic stage: "La lutte du prctre et de son frere sera Ie sujet de Paris. Le frere est 'un revolte, un violent, un anarchiste, un autre Souvarine.' [. . .J Son frere est un apotre, un illumine, capable de commettre un attentat pour affinner ses idees. 'Un attentat anarchiste sans doute. Etudier tout ce monde-lit'" (Ternois 290-9 1 ). As in the case of Etienne in Germinal, Zola hesitates on the political commitments of his main character, Pierre Froment; the latter seems to convert to a peaceful anarchism at this stage in the development of the novel: "Peu a peu, par les conversations de chaque jour, par les evocations de la societe funlre, Ie pretre est 'converti it cette religion de demain'" (291). The same movement that we have analyzed in Germinal is echoed here; although Etienne is seduced by Souvarinc, he finally wrests himself from the nihilist position to become the herald of a more "pacifist" view. To speak of anarchy in the singular, however, would be misleading; Zola at least presents the diversity within the party by

8 See also Jacques Noiray's "L'lmaginaire de la politique dans Paris," especially pp. 206 and 207.

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creating many characters that partake in the action of the novel-as opposed to the socialist characters mentioned above-and thus show the heterogeneous character of fin de siecle anarchy.9 Whereas Souvarine was the sole representative of the anarchist party in Germinal, Paris presents at least five different strains of anarchist tendencies, thus drawing a more complex and just picture of the movement. First of all, Pierre Froment can be described as a nihilist who resembles the character of Lazare in La Joie de vivre. In the first chapter of the novel, he is compared to a "sepu1cre vide" filled with the ashes of a disaster ( 1 1 79). In a moment of confession, he tells his brother that "e'est fini, je ne suis que cendre, un sepulcre vide, dans mon abominable detresse interieure. Je ne crois plus it rien, it rien, it rien" ( 1 324). This character paralyzed by his lack of faith is foiled by its opposite: the terrorist who takes a step forward by throwing himself into praxis. Many characters in the novel correspond to this "type": Sal vat, Victor Mathis, Janzen who most closely resembles Souvarine, to and even Guillaume. These terrorists are inspired by real life anarchists such as Vaillant and Emile Henry, the models that Zola used to create Salvat and Mathis correspondingly. I 1 Zola's attitude towards these anarchists is ambivalent: although he certainly agrees with their social goals, he nevertheless condemns their violent means. Noiray writes in these regards: "... si Zola cornprend l'anarchisme, il ne I'excuse n i ne I'accepte. Pour lui, les anarchistes sont des fous

9

See Noiray's Notice for the new GallimardlFolio edition of Paris, in particular page 657, whcre he alludes to the Ebauche of the novel and the folios 1 3 1 -136 in which lola describes the different "types anarchistes et socialistes" that he will evoke in the work. 10 Janzen is described in the following way: "Janzen, toujours debout, avec Ie pli ironique de sa levre, dans son visage glace, les ecoutail tous les trois, ne lachait des mots brefs, coupant comme des lames d'acier, que pour dire sa foi d'anarchie, l'inutilitc des nuances, la nccessitc de I'absolu, tout detruire pour tout reconstruirc" ( 1 266). 1 1 While writing Paris, Zola only consulted two sources to learn about anarchy: the trial notes compiled by Henri Varennes and published under the title De Ravachol Ii Caserio, and Kropotkin's pamphlet L ·Anarchie. sa philosophie. SOil ideal (Temois 640). The formcr complemented his own memories of thc "Ere dcs attentats" to provide the historical backdrop of the noveL The trial of Sal vat in Book IV, chapter 4, recalls the real trials of Vaillant and Henry. See Maitron, Chapter 5, especially pp. 230-247; also, the notes to the Paris edition in the (E/lvres Completes of Le Cercle du Livre Prccieux Edition, pp. 1589-1591, notes # 68, 69 and 75.

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sectaires, et leur ideal une maladie de I'esprit torture par 1a misere et I'injustice, un reve de destruction 'imbecile, inutile'" (216, 2000). When talking about Victor Mathis's terrorist attack, the narrator affirms: "II etait Ie pur destructeur, Ie theoricien de la destruction, I'intellectuel d'encrgie ot de sang-froid qui mettait I'effort de son corveal! cultive it raisonner Ie meurtrc" ( 1 550). Furthermore, Zola also describes the so-called "anarchic au salon," a type of cosmopolitan and snobbish approach to the move ment through which some wealthy individuals aligned themselves with anarchist parties as part of a cultural fad. This strain is repre sented by both 1a Princesse de Rosemonde and the decadent Hyacinthe. As Sonn reminds us in his work on fin de siecle anarchy, this was a very real movement, as royalists allied themselves with anarchists in their fight against the Republic:

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The duchesse d'Uzes's offer to adopt Auguste Vaillant's daughtcr could bc al1ributed to a stylish aI/archie aI/ sa/Oil, and aristocratic donations to known literary anarchists might be written ofT as insurance against violent reprisals. Nevertheless, between 1890 and 1894 the police amassed evidence linking royalist opponents of the Third Republic with the anarchists in more than sentimental or self-serving ways. Although the evidence suggests thaI the parties of the right were not as deeply involved with anarchism as they had been with the Boulangists or would be with the anti-Dreyfusards, the fact that some such collusion did exist makes the transition of a Barres from Boulangism to anarchism to anti-Dreyfusism easier to understand (38, 1 989).

Zola does not go so far as to analyze the reasons for this collusion between the upper-classes and the anarchists, and uses it to condemn the symbolist and decadent writers perceived as using anarchy i n fashionable rather than political ways. Zola then turns to the popular classes to show the rich anarchist culture that developed i n Montmartre. In this sense, the choice of the Butte as the main topographical feature of Paris is not innocent. The mixture of a lumpenproletariat bohemia,12 an artisan tradition, and an artistic avant-garde that flourished in the village atmosphere of Montmartre placed it in the map as a center of subversive practices.

1 2 The anarchist chamclers of Sanfaute and Rossi allude to the "bandit" type of anarchism that advocated stealing as a type of revolutionary act. While la Princesse de Rosemomle i s in Norway with Hyacinthe, they break into her house to rob it ( 1 433). For more on this aspect of anarchy, see in particular, Maitron ( 1 975), Chapter 3, pp. 183-194.

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Furthermore, the neighborhood had acquired status among the revolutionary history imprinted on the Parisian imagination as it was the site "of the murder of the two Versaillaise generals that inaugu rated the Paris Commune of 1 8 7 1 " (Sonn 5 1 , 1 989) and witnessed many important skirmishes throughout the civil war. As Varias explains in his Paris and the Anarchists: [. . .] Montmanre, as one of the strongholds of Commune rebels, was the setting

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 76. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=76

for bloody, bitter battles fought by surviving Communards in a losing cause against the troops of Adolphe Thiers's provisional government. Consequently, lht: quarlt:r (lSSUIllt":U a posiliull wilhill lilt: rt":vululiulI(lry hislury uf lht: J,;ily lu whieh it had so recenlly been attached and, through the mere mention of its name, could arouse emotions approaching those surrounding the Bastille or place de la Revolution (30).

Given the anti-urban stance of anarchism, it should come as no surprise that they would favor marginal spaces within the city: "Anarchists in Switzerland favored the natural setting of the area where artisanal culture remained prevalent and the complexities of modern urban life were largely absent. In this way, the anarchist emotional inclination for Romantic, anti-urban, and agrarian ways was very strong indeed" (Varias 1 2). Indeed, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, Montmartre displaced Belleville and the Latin Quarter as the anarchist foyer of the city: "With the important exception of La l?evolte, evcry major anarchist journal was edited and published in Montmartre. [ . . . ] The 1 8 85-95 decade that saw the birth of an average of seven newspapers per year for this one Parisian neighborhood was Montmartre's golden age as a cultural focal point" (Sonn 78-79, 1 989). The Butte thus offered an excellent space to expose the different layers of anarchist subversive practices, from the resistance to industrial capitalism embodied by the large artisan population to the more individualist gestures that transgressed cultural and artistic norms: Within the world of Parisian anarchism, Montmartre and its environs certainly offered the greatest number of categorical gradations. This was due to the complexity of life in and around the Butte. [. . .] the Montmanrian movement was intersected by a nefWork of political, cultural, and artistic subversive currents evoking the sense of a world spinning out of control (Varias 39).

Finally, Zola proposes a constructive sort of anarchism devoid of any violent content. When Guillaume describes his dream of a frater nal community to Pierre at the end of Book II, he comes close to an ideal espoused by both Proudhon and Kropotkin. Guillaume's political

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vision consists of a state-less society where individuals are free agents to form their own associations: II imaginai! ainsi Ull peuplc sauve de la tutcllc de l'Etat, sans maitre, presque sans loi, un peuplc heureux donI chaquc citoyell, ayall! acquis par la libcrte Ie compler deveioppemcnt de son eire, s'entendait a son gre avec ses voisins, pour les milles necessitcs de l'existencc; et de Id noissai! la societe. l'association libremcnt conscntic, des centaines d'associations diverses, reglant la vic sociaIe. toujours variables [. .J ( 1 3 1 7). .

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His allusions to scientific paradigms come directly from Kropotkin's text, L 'A narchie, sa philosoph ie, SOil ideal. Within the long paragraph in which Guillaume's ideas are exposed, Zola uses "Ie discours indirect Iibre" to report his words. He writes: "N'etait-c·e pas la seule theorie scientifique, les unites creant les mondes, les atomes faisant la vie par I'attraction, I'ardent et Iibre amour?" ( 1 3 1 7). Similarly, Kro potkin starts by referring to scientific discoveries and their impact on his social model: "Encore un pas, et bient6t I'attraction universelle elle-meme ne sera plus qu 'une resultante de tous les mouvements, desordonnes et incoherents, de ces infiniments petits-des oscillations d'atomes qui se produisent dans lOutes les directions possibles" (9). Furthermore, Kropotkin translates this vision into a social ethos when he writes: En meme temps qU'une nouvelle vue d'ensemble, une nouvelle philosophic, s'clabore ainsi dans les sciences, nous voyons aussi s'claborer une conception de la societe, tout a fait differente de celles qui ont prevalu jusqu'a nos jours, [...] Elle [Ia societe] cherche Ie p lus complet developpement de I'individualite, combine avec Ie pl us haut developpement de I'association volontaire sous tous les aspects, a tous les degres possibles, pour tous les buts imaginables: association tOlUOurS changeante, portant en elle-meme les elements de sa duree, et revetant les formes qui, a chaque moment, rcpondent Ie mieux aux aspirations multiples de taus (16-18).

Zola's use of discours indirect fibre a la Flaubert collapses the nar rative proper and Guillaume's ideology, making it impossible to separate Guillaume's thoughts from those of the narrator: "Le reve anarchique est sGrement Ie plus haut, Ie plus fier, et queHe douceur de s'abandonner it I'espoir de cette hannonie de la vie qui, d'eHe-meme, livree a ses forces naturelles, creerait Ie bonheur" ( 1 3 17-1 8). How ever, the ironic distance present in such narrative instances as practiced by Flaubert are absent, thus legitimizing this particular vision as the narrator's own. Is Paris then an anarchist novel? No doubt that Zola fares better when representing anarchism than socialism. The fact that the anar chist characters participate in the development of the plot distin-

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guishes them from the marginalized socialists. Yet, there is still a feeling of a binarism ideology/narrative that has not been bridged. In other words, the political underpinnings are grafted unto rather than integrated into the unfolding plot of the novel. To come back to the example given above, once the narrator reports Guillaume's words, almost by appropriating them, Pierre raises many questions: Quand Guillaume se rut, i1 sembI a sortir d'un songe. [ ...] Pierre, emu, un instant conquis, venait de sentir se dresser en lui I'objection pmtique terrible, destructive de tout espoir. Pourquoi I'hannonie n'avait-elle pas agi aux premiers jours du [JJundc, .; la naissalll;c dcs su(;i�ll:s? CUJllJllclil la lyrannic avail-dlc lriuJllpitc, livmnt les peuples aux opprcsscurs? Et, si I'on realisait jamais cc probleme insoluble de tout detruire, de tout recommencer, qui done pouvait promettre que ]'humanitc, obCissam aux memes lois, ne repasserait pas par les memes chemins ( 1 3 1 8)?

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 78. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=78

As Zola's spokesperson,u Pierre has become a pseudo-omniscient narrator within the novel, providing the distance that allows for a meta-commentary of the characters' political penchants. Herein lies a striking difference in the narrative construction of Paris as compared to Germinal. In the latter, as the reader may recall, the narrator was constantly analyzing Etienne's own political development by pinpointing his shortcomings. In Paris, this role is reserved to Pierre, the arbiter of the ideological debates that take place in Guillaumes room. 14 Though at first, Guillaume's anarchist dream seems to 13 Temois explains that, in the early stages of the project for Les Trois Villes, Zola had already conceived of creating a character that would represent his own ideas: "[...] il [Zola] decide de creer un personnage central' qui sem son porte-parole [ ... ]. 'II faudrait un homme qui rcprcsentat la librc pensce, Ie libre examen, la foi au seul progres par la science.' [...] II hesite et finalemcnt imagine un jeune prctre d'une trentaine d'annees, qui, sans I'avouer a personne, a perdu la foi" (Ternois 287). 14 In an interesting article about the Dossier Preparatoire of Paris, Noiray evokes a character that was meant to appear in the novel but was later abandoned by Zola. This character was meant to be "I 'Homme des foules," a sort of alter ego of the realist writer. Noiray writes: "Le gr.md ecrivain' de Paris serd ... une allegorie de la methode naturalistc d'observation et de creation, une mise cn abyme dans Ie tcxtc du romancier composant son reuvre" (Noiray 2 10 , 2003). Noiray speculates that Zola might have abandoned this character because Pierre Froment already fulfilled this role. He describes the priest as "pur esprit, pur regard promene dans les milieux les plus divers, present a tous les moments importants, non sans invmisemblance parfois... . L'abbe Pierre Froment et I'Homme des foules ont done mcme origine (une projection de la figure de I'auteur), mcme statuI (un pcrsonnage tcmoin), meme fonetion (un personnage porte-parole). Comment faire cohabiter, sans risque de double emploi, deux figures si semblables ?" (Noimy 218, 2003). '

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 79. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=79

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infiltrate the narrator's own words, Pierre serves as a check that provides the distance necessary to separate Guillaume's own ideology from that of the text. In other words, through Pierre's caveats, the anarchist dream is questioned and discredited: "Les idees de Kro potkine SOrollt celles de Guillaume, du mains au debut du livre; les objections de Zola SCrollt celles de Pierre. Guillaume reviendra it la raison. Car, e n 1 897, Zola ne pense plus, camme il Ie pensait ot 1e disait en 1 892, que les anarchistes sont des idealistes et que les societes de demain seront peut-etre anarchiques" (Temois 64 1 ) . Furthermore, the treatment of Proudhon i n the novel i s extremely problematic, revealing Zola's cursory interest in the real debates surrounding anarchy. In fact, Kropotkin's theories are based on Proudhon's associative model, and Guillaume's speech could be compared to the latter's ideas as exposed in his Idee de la Revolution au XIXe siecie. In the introduction to the study we explored Proudhon's emphasis on associations between individuals as the very fabric of social life. 15 In Paris, Proudhon is mentioned in five sections of the novel: Book II chapters I and 5 ; Book IV chapter 2; and Book Y, chapters 4 and 5. He is never mentioned alone, but rather appears in a catalogue next to the names of Fourier, Auguste Comte, Saint Simon, Cabet and even Karl Marx. Furthermore, a single phrase "Proudhon demolissait sans rien construire"-is attached to his name, a succinct slogan mentioned twice i n the novel (pp. 1 3 1 6 and 1 559). The Proudhonian character, Morin, is a ghost in the novel that has no active role in the plot. Moreover, he is not even a "pure" follower of the anarchist, but rather conflates Proudhon's theories with those of Auguste Comte. Zola writes about Morin: Franc-Comtois, compatriote dc Proudhon, dont il avait frequcnte it Bcsan�on la pauvre famille, fils lui-mcme d'un ouvrier horloger, Morin avait grandi dans les

15 Zola's representation of Proudhon is even more puzzling when one considers that in Germinal he alludes to his theories, thus suggesting that he knew something about them; speaking of Etienne, the narrator remarks: "Dans la pratique, il s'etait d'abord, avec Proudhon, laisse prendre par la chimere du credit mutuel, d'une vaste banque d'cchange, qui supprimait les intenncdiaires" ( 1340). FUrihennorc, in his 1865 article, "Proudhon et Courbet," Zola alludcs to the more constructive anarchist theories advocated by Proudhon: "Proudhon est un esprit honnete, d'une rare energi e voulant Ie juste et Ie vrai. 11 est Ie petit-fils de Fourier, il tend au bien-etre de l'humanite; il reve une vaste association humaine, dont ehaque homme sera Ie membre actif ct modeste. I I demande, en un mot, que I'egalite et la fraternitc regncnt [ .. .]" (35). ,

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idees proudhonienncs, ami tcndre des miserab[es, nourrissant une colCre d'inSlinCI contrc [a richessc et [a propriete. Plus tard, vcnu a Paris comme petit professeur, passionne par l'etude, il s'ctait donne, de toute son intelligence, a Auguste Comte; et c'ctait ainsi qu'on aurait retrouvc chez lui, sow; Ie positiviste fervent, I'ancien proudhonien, sa revolte personnelle de pauvre, en haine de la miscre ( 1 264).

Just as for the socialist figures mentioned in the novel, Zola only drew his information on Proudhon from the Larousse Encyclopedia: "Zola a lu l 'article 'Proudhon' dans Ie Dic:tionnaire universe/ de Pierre Larousse, il l'a resume en quatre pages, mais ne paralt pas avoir compris. [ ... ] II n'a pas eu la curiosite de feuilleter les livres de Fourier, de Proudhon et de Comte pour y cueillir quelques phrases, les preter il ses personnages ct imaginer des dialogues" (Temois 646). But whether Zola understood Proudhon's theories or not seems irrelevant to an analysis of the novel; rather, the way he chose to represent the father of anarchy demonstrates that his interest lay elsewhere. He retains a figure who advocates destruction for its own sake, thus, oddly enough, colluding with those intellectuals who, according to Kropotkin, emphasized the violent aspects of anarchism without exploring its more constructive tenets: "Ceux qui sont persuades que l'anarchie n' est qu'un ramassis de visions sur I'avenir et qu une poussce inconsciente vers la destruction de toute la civilisa tion actuelle, sont encore bien nombreux" (Kropotkin 5, 1 896). Eisen zweig echoes this sentiment when he states that " ... pour l'ecrivain [Zola], c'est bien la question de la violence, fantasmatique au non, peu importe, qui prime, Jorsqu'il s'agit de I'anarchisme" (21 0). If the ideology of anarchism-and socialism, for that matter-as reported i n the novel is not folded into the narrative, we have to displace our line of inquiry from the properly didactic passages to the construction of the narrative so as to expose the real role of anarchy within Paris. Zola's strongest critique of bourgeois order comes from his insightful analysis of anarchy as a by-product of the misery per pehmted by capitalism. From the time of the first bombs thrown by Ravachol in 1 892, 20la adopts a conciliatory tone, dismissing the ter rorist practices, but trying to understand them nonetheless: "Leur [des anarchistes] pensee est genereuse et leur creur est bon.... Ceux qu'on va juger ont une bonte peut-etre 'impulsive, inconsciente,' mais il faut s'efforcer de comprendre leurs se ntim ents" (Tern ois 1 73). He attributes their actions to '''Ies erreurs et les conventions' de I'organi sation sociale" (Ternois 1 73). As Salvat in the novel, Vai l lant and Henry-real life anarchists-read speeches during their trials i n which they blame the bourgeois order for anarchy's subversive practices. Vaillant attributes his acts to society's shortcomings-"Ia

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 80. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=80

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faute de 1a societe"-and during his speech, declares: "'L'explosion de rna bombc n'est pas seulement Ie cri de Vaillant revoite, mais Ie cri de loute une c1asse qui revendique ses droits'" (Ternois 333). 16 Similarly, Henry affinns that anarchy is a reaction to bourgeois hegemony:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 81. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=81

Scs racincs [de l'anarchic] sont trop profondcs; elle cst nee au scin d'unc societe pourric qui sc disloquc, elle cst unc reaction violemc conffC l'ordrc ctablL Ellc representc les aspimtions cgalitaires et liberlaires qui vicnnen! baltre en brechc \'autorite actuelle, elle est partout ce qui la rend insaisissable. Elle finira par vous lut:r (Mailrull 1 12, 1 992).

Throughout the novel, Zola draws a dismal picture of the misery that plagued the lower classes to explain the milieu in which anarchy thrived. The class struggle takes center stage from the very first page of the novel, the topography of Paris translating class inequalities: "Tout I'est de la ville, les quartiers de misere et de travail, semblaient submerges dans des fumees roussatres OU I'on devinait Ie souffie des chantiers et des usines; tandis que, vers I'ouest, vers les quartiers de richesse et de jouissance, la debacle du brouillard s'eclairait, n' etait plus qu'un voile fin, immobile de vapeur" (I 1 75).17 When Pierre Froment goes in search of Laveuve-the old, unemployed character who survives with the priest's alms-the descriptions of the poor neighborhoods are intended to raise the consciousness of the readers to social inequalities, much in the same way as in Germinal. The labyrinthine apartment building that houses the poor old man is falling apart and resembles La Ooutte d'Or portrayed in L 'Assommoir:

16 Kropolkin's influence on Vaillant can be discerned in his scientific metaphors: ,,' [ .. j [a disparilion de ['autorite permettnl a tous [es hommes de s 'organiser [ibrement [ ...j Oll [es etres humains vivronl dans ['hamlonie [ ... j dans ['etude des sciences de l'amour de leurs sembiabies [ .. . 1 I'histoire humaine est bien peu de chose dans Ie tourbillon qui I'emporte it tmvers I'immensile [...] dans [e jeu perpetue[ des forces cosmiques se renouvc[ant et se tmnsformant a I 'infini'" (Ternois 333). 17 The references to entropy as discussed in the introduction permeate the opening pages of Paris. Prendergast's allusion to the "'brume' which so often hangs over lola's Paris" (72) aptly applies to this passage, where the "fumecs roussatres" of the industrial quarters as well as the "brouil1ard" compared to "un voile [...] de vapeur" blurs the details of the city, effectively "vaporizing" the urban context. The cataclysmic regi ster is also present as the scene is immersed in the volcanic ashes of an apocalyptic disaster: "Un Paris de mystcre, voile de nuces, eomme enseveli sous la cendre de quelque desastre, disparu a demi deja dans la souffranee et dans la honte de ce que son immensite cachait" ( 1 175). .

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Cette cour etait un c1oaque, ou les ordures avaient dl!. s'amasser pendant les deux mois de terrible gelee; et tout fondait maintenant, une abominable odeur s'exhalait du lac de fange immonde. Les biitiments croulaient it demi, des vestibules beants s'ouvraient comme des trous de cave, des taies de papier bariolaient les vitres crasseuses, des loques pendaient inffimes, telles que des drapeaux de mort ( 1 182).

These apartments contrast sharply with the bourgeois houses constructed around the Sacre-Creur:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 82. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=82

II Y avait la tout un quartier neuf en construction, Ie long des larges voies ouvertes, depuis les grands travaux du Sacre-Cceur. De hautes et bourgeoises maisons se dressaient deja, au milieu des jardins eventres, parmi des terrains vagues, entoures encore de palissades. Et, avec leurs fa!Vades cossues, d'une blanchcur neuve, clles ne faisaicnt quc rendrc plus sombrcs, plus Icprcuscs, les vieilles biilisses branlantes restees debout, des guinguettes louches aux muTS sang-de-breuf, des cites de souffrance aux biitiments noirs et souilles, ou du betail hurnain s'entassait ( 1 1 82).

By stressing the differences between the bourgeois living spaces and that of the lower classes, Zola underscores an ideological position in a more powerful manner than in any of his didactic passages. The solidity of the new houses and their geometric order-"'Ies larges voies ouvertes" evoke without a doubt Haussmann's boulevards contrasts with the fluidity and chaos associated with the lower classes, who live in spaces that connote gaps ("des vestibules bcants s'ouvraient comme des trous de cave"), ailments ("Iepreuses") and filth ("un cloaque," "les ordures," "lac du fange"). These motifs are underlined by the description of the staircases which lead nowhere and bestow upon the building an anarchic character: [.. ] il monta [. . ] un escalier sombre ct fetide, aux marches a demi rompues, qu'il dut s'aidcr de la corde graisscusc, grace it laquelle on sc hissait [.. .]. Cet escalicr du fond etait plus abominable que les autres, les marches dcjetees, les murs gluants, comme trempes d'une sueur d'angoisse. A chaque palier, les plornbs souftlaient une haleine de peste, et de chaque logement sortaient des plaintes, des querelles, un affreux degout de misere ( 1 1 84). 18 .

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18

Just as the comparisons between the sumptuous house of the Hennebeau in Germinal and the miners' quarters, the Duvillard's "royal hotel de la rue GodOl-de Mauroy" is describL>U in details so as to underscore the misery of the poor quarters. The staircase in the bourgeois house is solid and leads to the lavish upper apartments: "I'escalier d'honneur, d'une richesse [ . ] fameuse, montait a I'appartement occupe .

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Through the juxtaposition of spaces, through the difference produced by these contrasts, the ideological meaning of the text comes to the fore: "[ . J elles [Ies maisons bourgeoises] ne!aisaienr que rendre plus sombres [ .. )" (1 1 82, emphasis added). These discrepancies offer the backdrop to an explanation of anarchy as subversive practice; Mme Theodore lucidly explains her companion's propensity for anarchist tenets: "[ J il [Salvat] a raison de se plaindre, on ne s'imagine pas un parcil acharnement du malheur, tout s'est abattu sur lui, tout I'a cerase. Un saint lui-meme en deviendrait fou, et l'on comprend qu'un pauvre, qu'un ma1chanceux finisse par en etre enrage [ . ]" ( 1 1 89). During his trial, Salvat concurs with his lover's analysis when he declares that anarchist activity springs forth from social inequalities: ..

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C'etait Ie eri de souffrance et de revolte pousse deja par tant de desherites, l'affreuse misere d'en bas, l'ouvrier ne pouvant vivre de son travail, loute une classe, la plus nombreusc, la plus digne, mouranl de faim, landis que, d'autrc part, lcs privilegies, gorges de richesses, vaulres dans leur assouvissemenl, refusaienl jusqu'aux miel1es de leur lable, ne voulaienl rien rendre de celte fortune volee (1464-5).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 83. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=83

Similarly, the defense lawyer displaces the blame of the Crime from Sal vat to the social structure: [...] il [l'avocal] lui suffit de remettre en son vrai jour l'histoire de Salvat, de Ie montrer des l'enfanee sous les fatalitcs sociales, d'expliquer son demier aete par tout ce qu'il avait soufferl, tout ce qui avail genne dans son crane de rCveur. Son crime n't�tait-il pas Ie crime de tous? Qui ne se sentait un peu responsable de ceue bombe [ . .] (1467) ?19 .

The violence of the bourgeois system begets anarchic violence. State violence is symbolized in the novel by Sal vat's decapitation i n the first section of Book Y, where the guillotine exposes the pro duction of terror by authorities. 20 The scene begins with a description d'habitude par la famille, un grand salon rouge, un petit salon bleu et argent, un cabinet de travail aux murs recouverts de vieux cuirs [. .]" (1 191). 19 Guillaume also concurs with this opinion when he tells Pierre: "La terreur bourgeoise a fait la sauvagerie anarchiste" (1322). 20 Zala's stand on capital punishment was at best ambiguous: "Un joumaliste demande a Zola ce qu'il pense de la peine de mort; il repond avec une extreme prudence, cmignant les reactions de I'opinion publique: 'J'estime que dans une societe regie par des lois, si ['un de ses membres lui declare ouvertement la guerre [...] cette societe a Ie droil d'uscr de represailles envers cet homme et Ie condamner a .

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of the misery that plagues the Parisian landscape: "[ ... 1 quels spectres de l'absolu denuement, que lies aspirations de doulcur et d'effroi, que! gemissement de lointaine agonie, dans Ie Paris de ce matin-Ia" ( 1 488). Amidst the misery, the guillotine reminds the proletariat to stay within the boundaries traced by the ruling classes. Only through this monopoly of violence can the state ensure its own survival: C'etait �a, la machine it vcngcr la societe, la machine it faire des exemplcs! [...] Guillaume sentit que la guillotine clail Iii. bien iI. sa place, dans ce quartier de misere et de travail. Elle s'y dressait chez elle, comme un aboutissement et l;UJllJllt: line menace [... ]. EI II'�lail-d[t: pas dlarg�l:, t,;!Ja4ul: [uis 4U'UII [a pl alllail au milieu de ces rues ouvrieres, de tellir ell respect les deshi!rites, [es meurl-dc faim, exaspCres de ['clemelle injustice, toujours prets a [a revolte? On ne la voyait point dans les quarticrs de richesse et de jouissance, qu'cllc n'avait pas a

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 84. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=84

tcrroriscr. Elle y serait apparue inutile, salissante, dans toute sa monstruositc farouche (1495, emphasis added).

Zola suggests that the impending revolution is kept at bay thanks to the guillotine that intimidates and detracts would-be revolutionaries. He further dismantles the violent machinery of bourgeois order by showing how the guillotine participates fully in the consumer society of fin de siec1e. The execution is described as a "cinquieme acte d'un drame celebre" ( 1 497) where the spectators rush into the theater to view the bloody show: "[ ... ] ils [Pierre et Guillaume] se melaient it des groupes noirs, tout Ie troupeau des curieux en marc he, tout un pietinement confus et passionne vcrs la guillotine. Cela ruisselait, venait de Paris entier, comme pousse par une fievre brutale, un gout de la mort et du sang" ( 1 489). The spectators become consumers as they buy food and drinks from the cafes adjoining La Place de la Roquette: "Peu a peu, I'ennui de I'attente avait transfonne en consommateurs tous les curieux du baleon et de la salle voisine. [ ... ] Le gan;:on ne suffisait plus it servir des bocks, des fins vins, des biscuits, meme des viandes froides" ( 1 492). It should be noted, however, that the narrative is complicit with this spectacle as Zola chooses to exploit the anarchist's decapitation in the novel through its representation, the drama of the "cinquicmc acte" corresponding to the plot of Book v.

mort. ( ...J Cependant, personnellement et comme philosophe, j'ai pcut-etre une aulre ra«un de pcnSt:r, mais permeltez-mui de garder pour mui mun apprL:.ciatiun sur Ie jugement qui frappe Vaillant'" (Ternois 334).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 85. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=85

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Furthermore, this chapter is framed by the Sacre-Creur, thus aligning the scene with religious irrationality and the ancien regime: "[ ... J comme ils se retoumaient, ils apcn;urent 1a basilique du Sacre Cceur. [ ... J Jamais encore elle n'avait semble a Guillaume si cnorme, dominant Paris, memc endormi, d'une royaute pIlls laue et plus cerasante" ( 1 485, emphasis added). No doubt that the reference to royalty, coupled with the word "tetue" that suggests the head of the monarch, and the images of the guillotine that follow, presage Guillaume's ultimate plan to "decapitate" La Butte. Similarly, at the end of the chapter, after Sa!vat's death, the two brothers stumble upon the same vision of a triumphal Sacre-Cecur: "Tout d'lln coup, comme les deux freres gravissaient Ie flanc raide de la Butte, ils apercyurent, en face d'eux, au-dessus d ' eux, la basilique du Sacre-Cceur, souveraine et triomphale. [...J Le solei I la baignait d'une splendeur, elle etait en or, et orgueilleuse, et victorieuse, flambante de gloire immortelle" ( 1 50 I , emphasis added). The narrative suggests that at this very moment, Guillaume conceives the plan to destroy the church: "Guillaume, muet, qui avait en lui Ie demier regard de Salvat, parut soudain conclure, prendre une decision demiere. Et il ia regarda de ses yeux bn11ants, il ia condamna" ( 1 50 1 ). In an unexpected reversal, the guillotine is bestowed with its original revolutionary potential, demonstrating the way in which state violence can be redirected against the very authorities that try to contain it. The subtext that informs Guillaume's decision is the king's beheading, thus placing the character-whose alliteration with the word 'guillotine' might not be fortuitous-within a revolutionary context. Similarly, the allusion to the Pere Lachaise cemetery recalls the massacre of workers in the destruction of the Commune ( 1495). In fact, through these references to historical revolutions, Zola suggests that anarchy serves as a subversive space to combat bourgeois hegemony. The fact that Guillaume's anarchist attack is eventually aborted, however, suggests that the subversive element remains at a chimerical level. I f in the didactic passages of the novel, Zola offered a cursory explanation of anarchy, in thcsc passages he at least shows the subversive potential of individual terrorism. I would claim, however, that this interpretation rests at the level of wishful thinking. The narrative demonstrates how any subversive space is recuperated by the capitalist economy to buttress the bourgeois political machine. Herein lies the most troubling aspect of Paris; rather than an antithetical relationship, power and anarchy seem to nurture a parasitic or symbiotic partnership. The parliamentary scandal portrayed in the novel, "L'affaire des chemins de fer africains,"-which echoes the

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real Panama scandal-is solved through the sacrifice of Salvat: "Salvat condamnc a mort, avant memc qu'il cut comparu! Salvat payant les fautes de tous, n'etant plus qu'une occasion propice pour Ie triomphe d'une bande de jouisseurs et d'ambitieux" ( 1 460). The politicians in the novel thus strategically use anarchy to detract the public's attention from their own illegal activities. Massot, the journalist, states it with candor: '''En voila une bombe qui aura arrange les affaires de plusieurs gaillards de rna connaissance!" ( 1 464). As the reader may recall, the government of Barroux was threatened once Sanier had published the list of officials who had participated in the corrupt affair of the African railroad. Thanks to the capture of Salvat, however, Montferrand, with the help of Fonsegue, the powerful editor of Le Globe, and Le Baron Duvillard, effectively diverts attention from his own wrong-doings. During the dramatic parliamentary session in Book III, section 5, when Barroux confesses to his role in the scandal, Montferrand denies any accusation and speaks instead of Salvat's arrest in the Bois de Boulogne: [ . ] la morale publique clait vengee, Paris pouvait sortir de sa longue lerreur, I'anarchie serait frappee a la tete. Et voila ce qu'il avait fait, lui, ministre, pour I'honneur et pour Ie salul du pays, pendant que d'immondes d6lateurs essayaient vainement de salir son nom, en I'inscrivant sur une lisle d'infamie, reuvre invcnlee des plus basses manreuvres politiques (1405).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 86. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=86

.

.

The Chambre welcomes Montferrand as a savior who creates a smoke screen behind which to hide: "[ ... ] la Chambre ecoutait. Cette histoire d'une arrestation [ ... ] lui tombait du ciel [...j" ( 1 405). In this way, Zola demonstrates how subversive practices are co-opted by the hegemonic power. The collusion between politics and anarchy is shown throughout the novel as the police participates and instigates the anarchists only to repress them even the more harshly. The bandits Rossi and Sanfaute, who rob la Princesse de Rosemonde, are duped by Bergaz, an agent of the police. Such incidents allow the political power to castigate anarchy by making salient its negative tenets; in other words, the violent potential of anarchy is highlighted over its more positive dogma. During Salvat's trial, the prosecution discredits anarchy by associating it with crime: L'anarchie ensuite fut flagellce, les anarchistes n'etaienl qu'une lourbe de vagabonds et de voleurs. On l'avait bien vu, lors du sac de I'h6tel de Harth, celte bande ignoble qui se reclamait justement des ap6tres de la doctrine. Voila ou en arrivait I'application des theories, aux maisons devalisees, souillecs, en attendant les grands pillages et les grands massacres ( 1 467).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 87. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=87

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The "real" history of anarchy is rife with examples of police agents infiltrating anarchist milieux to encourage it and make it easier to repress. Some historians, including Maitron, Sonn, and Ternois,21 have suggested that the bombings offered an excellent excuse to pass the so-called "lois sceierates" that curtailed the freedom of the press:22 "The nonlethal bombing [of la Chambre des Deputes by Vaillant] could scarcely have been better calculated to give the government an excuse to redouble its antianarchist campaign than if it had been planned by the government itself' (Sonn 20, 1 989). These new laws made it impossible to "provoke" acts of violence, the tenn left purposefully vague to indict anarchist papers. Indeed, the anarchist wave of terror was accompanied by an expansion in the govemmenCs surveillance machinery through these laws as well as through an increase in searches and raids: «[ ... J the police visited a wave of terror of their own upon the anarchists in the winter of 1 894. The raids opened on January 1 , 1 894, and by the end of June, 426 people had been arraigned for engaging in a criminal conspiracy, after thousands of searches and arrests" (Sonn 20, 1 989). Anarchy was also used i n the newspapers to increase economic profits: "[ ... ] il convient de signaler combien la presse contribua a creer une psychose collective de I'attentat. Durant ces annees troubles, les journaux timent une rubrique quotidienne de la dynamite; ils multiplierent interviews et reportages sur ce theme [... J" (Maitron 258, 1975). This aspect is underscored in the novel by Sanier's newspaper, La Voix du peuple, based on Drumont's La Libre parole. Zola writes: Jamais pareil debordement n'avait eneore inonde la presse. Le Globe, si prudent, si grave d'ordinaire, n ' ctait pas epargnc, ccdait a ce eoup de folie de I'infor mation a outrance. Mais il fallait voir les joumaux sans scrupulcs, La Voix dl/ pel/pie surtout, exploilanr la ficvre publique, terrifiant, d6traquant la rue, pour

21 Temois writes: "Ce ne son! pas les anarchistes qu'on redoute, on sait bien qu'ils sont peu nombreux et que la police les connait taus. On redoute Ie socialisme et les syndicats. Au moment des atlentats, on a eu peur, all a sur,oul jail scmblalll d 'ovoir peur, pour obtenir des mesures plus sevcres et une police plus forte; on a affectc de confondre en une meme menace anarchistes et socialistes, et Ie gou-vernemellf a javorise cette conjusion, qui lui clait utile" (169, emphasis added). 22 These laws were voted in 1 893, after Vaillant's attack against the Chambre. Zola agrees with the repressive measures taken by the government: "II [Zola] est parti san de 'mesures preventives: interdiction desjournaux anarchistes et loi sur les explosifs . ' I I accepte meme une limitation du droit de la parole" (Ternois 327).

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tirer el vendre davantage. Chaque matin, c'ctait une imagination nouvelle, unc efTroyable his loire it bouleverser Ie monde ( 1 282, emphasis added).

Just as political power seizes anarchy to tighten control, newspapers use it as capital to increase their own sales. Ironically, we can conclude from these passages that anarchy can be reconfigured so as to serve the objectives of a surveillance mechanism and a capitalist economy. In other words, the hegemonic power recuperates anarchy by effacing its reformist tendencies, leaving only its violent potential.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 88. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=88

Anarchy as Narrative Capital

I would like now to draw an analogy hetween the social stmctures as portrayed in the novel and the narrative framework that imitates them: just as the political power calls on anarchy to buttress itself, the narrative reconfigures anarchic spaces to produce its own intelligibility. Indeed, Zola made it very clear that he would draw on anarchy to create violent scenes that would appeal to a wide readership. In the Ebauche to Lourdes, written in July of 1 893, Zola does not know whether to place Guillaume in Souvarine's or Etienne's camp: "'J'ai dit que mon heros serait un anarchiste, mais je n'en sais rien; ce sera peut-etre un evolutionniste; je prefererais cela'" (Ternois 29 1). In 1 896, when he writes the Ebauche for Paris, he has opted to change Guillaume's character: "'Guillaume n'est pas un anarchiste: i t est 'evolutionniste,' mais i l pense que la violence peut etre necessaire et excuse les attentats anarchistes: il y a des cataclysmes dans I'evolu tion de l'univers et des revolutions dans I'histoire humaine'" (Ternois 622). Zola returns again to the role of violence in bringing about social change. Guillaume, exposing the ideological ambivalence present in Germinal, lays out his conception of history by calling on geological cataclysms: Je n'etais qu'un positiviste, moi, un savant tout a I'observation et a I'experience, n'acceptant rien en dehors du fait constatc. Scientifiquement, socialement, j'admetlais revolution simple el lenle, enfanlan! j'humanilc comme I'elre humain lui-meme est enfanlc. EI c'cst alors que, dans I'hisloire du globe, puis dans celie des socictcs, if In 'a lallll laire la place d/l volcal/, Ie brusque cataclysme, la brusque eruption, qui a marque chaque phase geologique, chaque periode historique. On en arrive ainsi a constaler que jamais un pas n'a etc fait, un progres accompli, sans l'aide d'cpouvantables catastrophes, Toute marche en avant a sacrific des milliards d'exislences ( 1322-23, emphasis added).

Guillaume thus exposcs a dialectical relationship between any kind of telcological narrative-"un progres accornpli"-and anarchy recon-

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figured as natural cataclysm-"sans I'aide d'epouvantabJes catastro phes." Zola's ideological map thus conflates anarchy, violence and drama as he integrates a violent vision, not for its political im plications, but rather in the interests of the plot: "eet cvolutionniste admettra la violence, paree qu'it faut qu'it y ait dans Ie roman un attentat, un crime, du sang" (Ternois 29 1 ). The Ebauche of the novel (folios 64 and 65) illustrates Zola's fascination with scenes of destruction:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 89. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=89

Je verrais volOnlicrs un quartier entier detmit. J'avais songc a 1a bulle Mont martre, Ie Sacre-Cccur cffondrc. Cela frapperait, paree que ccla dominc Paris. II [Guillaume] pourrait Ie faire un dimanche soir, lorsquc l'cglisc est vide. Mais les risques des morts toujours a courir. Ou, en pleine horreur, pendant une cercmonie religieusc, dix mille personnes tuces (Paris. No/ice, NoirdY 652).

Similarly, Ternois chastises Zola's exploitation of anarchy for narrative purposes: "Zola [... ] laisse aux anarchistes, dans son roman, la place qu'il leur avait donnce en 1 892, parce que les anarchistes lancent des bombes, parce qu'ils lui 'donnent' des attentats et des morts, et cette execution capitale qui n'avait pas trouve place dans La Bete ilL/maine" (Ternois 65 1). By advocating violence as the center of narrative fascination, Zola participates in the economy of "spectacle" that sustained the anarchists' "propagande par Ie geste" and thus becomes an accomplice with those who seized the opportunity to exploit a social phenomenon to advance the sales of newspapers-not unlike Sanier's own newspaper portrayed in Paris. Herein lies the paradoxical position of anarchy within the economy of the novel: although Zola intends to expose and attack bourgeois society through the lens of anarchism, anarchism is co-opted into the economic machinery of the former, thus making it impossible to create a true space of resistance in Paris, a goal which in any event seemed unlikely at this stage of capitalist production, as I will suggest later. Zola's project thus becomes dubious: if socialism was treated only in a cursory fashion, anarchism provides the narrative capital that raises the value of the noveL Rather than providing an in-depth analysis of anarchy, Zola simplifies its tenets to retain only what he thought could contribute to the (anarchist) plot of the noveL How does this tension-between the wishful ideological attack on bourgeois order and the real triumph of the latter through a colonization of subversive discourses-play out in the unfolding of the narrative? Paradoxically, the anarchist bomb deploys at once centripetal and centrifugal forces, the explosion becoming a nodal point around which all plot lines coalesce, a void which exposes the

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artifice of emplotment. As many critics have pointed out, the naturalist ability to encompass the real was strained in this particular novel given the ambition of representing an entity such as Paris. Nicolas White writes in these regards: "For Zola to write a novel about the capital was to test in the public domain the resources of the Naturalist rhetoric of 'tout dire.' [ ...J the novel also confronts the dilemma of how to make sense of the complexities of multiple urban plots in a readable formal" ( 1 68, 1 999). The narrative is siabilized by fixating the point-of-view in the ersatz omniscient narrator of Pierre Froment what Thomson has called the "narrateur spectateur": Le personnage de I'abbe Pierre Froment cst Ie moteur prooominant de la narra1ion; I'enonciation dei5 p�ripe:ties (Ie I'action e1 (Ies pitSi5agei5 (lei5criptifs S(� fait constamment de son point de vue, Le recit de la trilogie, par la plus grande densitc des proccdcs narratifs, s'efforcc d'ctrc t01alcment cohcrcnl et vraisemblable ( 1 03 Typologie").

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 90. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=90

"

As the reader might recall, Pierre VISitS various social milieux throughout the first five chapters of the first book to procure a space i n the "asile des Invalides du travail" for Laveuve, the poor worker whom he had come to rescue at the very beginning of the novel. He thus visits the Baron's house, the Parliament, the Comtesse de Quinsac's salon, the h6tel particulier belonging to the cocotte Silviane, the palace of the Princesse, and ends up in the church of La Madeleine. After a circumambulatory tour of the city, he returns to the beginning of his journey, in front of the Duvillard's home, thus circumscribing the sections of an otherwise fragmented city. Pierre's effort to frame the plot, however, runs counter to the anarchist plot. The narrative's fear of decomposition generates a high level of anxiety which is present at the beginning ofthe novel; Pierre's overarching vision of Paris is dominated by obfuscation rather than intelligibility: C e1ait, apres dcux mois de froid terrible, de neige et de glace, un Paris noye sous un degcl morne et frissonnant. Du vaste ciet, couleur de plomb, tombail Ie deuil d'une brume epaisse. [...] Un Paris de myslere, voile de tluees, comme enseveli sous la cendre de quelque desaslrc, disparu a demi deja dans la souffrance el dans la honte de ce que son immcnsitc cachait ( 1 175). '

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The recurrence of the word "cendre"23 throughout the first chapter coupled with images of burning and fire, imply that the lava of a volcano has already incinerated the whole city, the anarchist bomb had already exploded. As Hiner has suggested, the opening of the novel stages the explosion which is described later in the novel: "Zola's apocalyptic imagery ... narrates explosion long before the first bomb goes off: the city is already reduced to rubble and shrouded in a post-explosive dust" (252). Similarly, Noiray has analyzed the importance of chaos as leitmotif in the novel: "Tout, dans cette grande Babylone qu'est Ie Paris moderne renvoie j, I'idee fondamentale d'un chaos ( ... J Chaos, ruines, decombres, demence, sont dans Paris .. les maltres mots d'un monde en desordre" (Noiray 208 and 2 1 1 , 2000). This anxiety is crystallized around the couple Pierre-Salvat as the narrative maps out the field of vision between the priest's omniscience and the anarchist's secret, mainly the bomb hidden in his sac a mails. As a vagabond roaming through the city, Sal vat introduces an element of unpredictability in an otherwise extremely organized narrative that assigns specific spaces to each character. At the end of each chapter, Pierre encounters Salvat. After visiting Mme Theodore-Salvat's lover-and leaving the apartment building, the first seemingly fortuitous meeting between the two characters occurs: "Cornme Pierre s'echappait de l'affreuse et douloureuse maison, la tete bourdonnante, Ie ceeur ravage de tristesse, il eut I'Ctonnernent de revoir Salvat et Victor Mathis, arretes et debout, dans un coin de la cour immonde [ ... ]" ( 1 190). Later, at the end of chapter 2, in front of the Duvillard's home, a similar coincidence throws the two characters together: "N'avait-il [Pierre] pas vu, au bord du trottoir d'en face, regardant cette porte monumentale, close sur de si fabuleuses richesses, un ouvrier arrete, attendant, cherchant de ses yeux, dans lequel il avait cru reconnaitre Salvat, avec son sac 3 outils [ ... J" ( 1207)? Again, at the end of chapter 3, in front of Le Palm's Bourbon, Zola writes: "Pierre eut la surprise de reconnaitre, dans cet homme mal vetu, Salvat, I'ouvrier mecanicien qu'il avait vu partir Ie matin en quete de travail" ( 1 222). Thc pattcrn is reconfinned by Salvat's appearancc at the end of chapter 4: "[ ...] i l [Pierre] cut la surprise de reconnaitre de nouveau, sur un banc, Sal vat. L 'ouvrier devait etre venu 13 s'echouer,

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 91. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=91

.

23 For example, Zola writes: "La cendre de dcsastre qui noyait Paris semblait s 'epaissir, sous les rafales de la bise glacee" ( 1 1 77); and, again, "ce grand Paris, si voile de cendre" ( 1 1 81).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 92. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=92

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apres bien des recherches vaines, terrasse par la fatigue et 1a faim" ( 1 239). The unintended cat and mouse game between Pierre and Salvat ironically efface the narrative's efficacy at hiding its own emplotment: repeated chance encounters become entangled in a teleological predictability that gnaw away at the plot's foundation. Despite Pierre's repeated angst at not knowing what is going to happen, the reader is privy to the knowledge that an explosion is imminent. The overdetermined plot line at once detonates and neutralizes the bomb. Daryl Lee explains that the repetitions "eveillent Ie sentiment de quelque chose de fatal et d' inevitable, qui, dans un autre contexte, serait simplement un "hasard." Effectivement, cette serie de rencontres anticipe ou "prevoit" l'attentat terroriste que Salvat provoquera par la suite sous les yeux de Pierre" ( 1 74). Whereas Pierre masterfully dominates the codes to read the city and to navigate through it in the first four chapters, as the narration moves closer to the climax of the first book, his omniscient perspective disappears. When he learns that Laveuve has died and that all of his efforts had been in vein, he loses his purpose and becomes a vagrant of the city, an anti-flaneur, since he is no longer able to dominate the urban text: "Immobile, hesitant en face de ces espaces qui s'ouvraient, Pierre se demandait avec detresse Oll il allait mainte nant, dans Ie brusque ecroulement de tout ce qu' i l avait passionnement voulu depuis Ie matin" ( 1246). Moreover, the coherence of the cityscape that had been held together through his lens falls apart into a myriad fragments: [. .] sur l
Pierre himself loses his footing, not knowing anymore where he is. When he reaches Ia place de l'Opera, he does not recognize the site, deemed the most dangerous place in the world by the narrator: Le boulev
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This dizzying vortex, where the narrative's ability to master the city is pushed to its limit, announces the apocalyptic war between social classes. At this moment, Pierre thinks of the inevitable catastrophe that the inequitable distribution of wealth will bring about: [...] louie esperance elai! morte en son creUT, il senlai! la foudrc inevitable, rien desormais ne pouvait retarder la catastrophe. Jamais encore i l ne ['avail senlie si prochaine, dans I impudence heureuse des uns, dans la dclresse exasperee des autres. Et elle s'amassait, et elle al1ai! surement eclatcr au-dessus de ce Paris de rut et de bravadc, qui, Ie soir vcnu, attisait sa foumaisc (1 248). '

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 93. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=93

As the text risks losing control of its mimetic function, however, Pierre crosses the me Scribe-becoming indeed a scribe again where he finds, in front of a cafe, no other than Salvat. Echoing Bau delaire's "Les yeux des pauvres," the latter stands outside looking in, feasting his eyes on bourgeois complacency. Pierre's own ideological sholtcomings are revealed when Zola writes: "II [Pierre] ne pouvait croire qu'il allait Ie [Salvat] voir entrer, s'asseoir a une des petites tables, sous la gaiete tiede des iampes, lui d'aspect si miserable [ ... ]" ( 1 249). The appearance of Salvat at this instance grounds the narrative again, giving Pierre a focus that arrests his momentary loss of perspective. Pierre watches as Salvat meets Guillaume only to leave the priest's brother shortly thereafter. The anarchist begins wandering the streets and the two brothers follow him separately. Pierre intuitively feels that a catastrophe is about to happen: Gagne par une inquietude croissanle, Pierre avail regarde la scene. L'attente nerveuse au il clail d'lln grand malheur indelemline, Ie soupr,:on 01.1 venaienl de Ie jeler les rencontres successives, inexplicables de Salvat, la surprise de voir rnaintenant son frere mele a l'aventure, l'avaient envahi tout entier d'un besoin de savoir, d'assister, d'empecher peut-etre. II n'hesita pas, lui-merne suivit les dcux hommcs, prudcmmcnl (1 250).

The narrative stands still as it repeats itself, completing the full cycle that started at the Duvillard's home in chapter 2. 24 As Sal vat goes up the rue Godot-de-Mauroy, where the sumptuous hotel is located, Pierre has a deja vu experience: "[ . ] apres l'avoir perdu un instant, i l [Pierre] retrouva Salvat debout sur Ie trettoir, en face de l'hotel .

.

24 As the reader recalls, Pierre started his journey at the Duvillard's home, before visiting the different sections of the city, such as the Palais Bourbon, Silviane's ··petit hotel," and La Madeleine.

Anarchy as Narrative Capital

Duvillard, a fa place meme Oll, Ie malin, if avail cru Ie reconnarlre" ( 1 250, emphasis added). Next, Camille and Hyacinthe arrive at their house in their landau, discussing homosexuality ("Les femmes me degoiitent," declares Hyacinthe) and the pseudo-incestuous relationship between Camille, la Baronne and Gerard. in the closed carriage, the taboos of social order are transgressed. At the same time, a young girl working for a fashion store walks towards the house, delivering a hat for the Baronne. The inevitable explosion that resurrects the narrative-like the volcano that Guillaume accepts as the necessary evil to take a step forward-leading it out of its imbroglio, finally erupts: "Soudaine ment, ce fut Ie grondement de la foudre, une explosion formidable, comme si la terre s'ouvrait, comme si I'h6tel foudroye s'aneantissait [ . ] Une flamme d'enfer avait embrase un instant la rue, la poussiere et la fumee furent telles, que les quelques passants aveugles hurierent d'epouvante" ( 1 253). The images of an erupting volcano dominate "Ia terre s'ouvrait," "Ia poussiere," "Ia fume-e"; Zola makes the comparison explicit when he writes: "ce porche ou semblait s'etre ouverte une bouche de volcan" ( 1 253). As a result of the attack, the young girl, a member of the lower classes, is killed, whereas the landau carrying the bourgeois is left unscathed. This fact is used against Salvat during the trial, when the prosecution declares: '''e'est une des votres que vous avez frappce, c'est une ouvriere, une pauvrc enfant qui aidait sa vieille grand-mere a vivre, avec ses quelques sous de gain'" ( 1463). Ideologically, the text condemns the subversive act as sterile, since the target of the attack is completely missed to attain one of the members of the proletariat. The first book of the novel thus stages a type of narrative deconstruction: the anarchist bomb denaturalizes naturalism, exposes its inner workings. The anxiety registered by Pierre echoes not only the fear of violent revolution inscribed in the anarchist figure but also of the loss of perspective that allows the narrative itself to function. On the one hand, the plot revolves around this absence since at the very moment of the explosion, narrative coherence is attained: ..

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 94. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=94

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Pierre [ . lfill illumine par eel eclair [the explosion]. 11 revit la bombe gonflant Ie sac a oulils, que Ie chomage faisait vide et inutile. Il Ia revit sous Ie veSlon en loques, celie bosse qu'il avail prise pour un morceau de pain ramasse con!re une borne, rappor!e au logis, a la femme et a I'enfant. Apres avoir COUTU, menace tout Ie Paris heureux, elk venal! de flamber la, d'eclaler telIe que Ie tonnerre, a ce seuil de la bourgeoisie souveraine, mailresse de I'or (1253, emphasis added). .

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Through the explosion, Pierre gains narrative cognition, putting the puzzle together, recognizing the clues that he had not fully understood

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and integrating them into a whole. In fact, as White has elegantly pointed out, the entire plot congeals around the site of SalvaCs bombing: II is in this scene that Pierre starts to sense the multiple connections which dynamizc the plot in its varied contexts-anarchist, ecclesiastic, parliamentary, journalistic, decadent, poverty-stricken, aristocratic, and amongst the haute bourgeoisie. This recognition of the network of intrigues is triggered by the realization of what Salva! is intent on doing [ ...] the plol comes together at a literal 'scene of the crime' just as bodies and buildings fall apart (203).25

The narrative thus emulates the social structures that capitalize on anarchy to buttress their own power. Just as anarchy provided the scapegual lo consolidale the Republic, il serves as lhi;! s lruc lurin g element that holds the narration together. Yet, concomitantly, the anxiety registered throughout the first book speaks to the fiction of representation itself always already haunted by its own decom position, an explosive narrative tenuously held together by that which destroys it.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 95. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=95

Towards Utopia: Taking the Bite Out of Anarchy

In short, even when recuperated by the hegemonic power to buttress itself, anarchy remains dangerous as its revolutionary potential has not been completely neutralized and can back fire at any point. In an interesting reading of the novel, Daryl Lee has argued quite convincingly that the anarchist element in Paris signals a return of the Commune: "Comme un corps inconvenablement enterre, I'an nee 1 87 1 resurgit, Ie fait historique se transformant cette fois en une menace catastrophique qui risque de perturber ce lieu (Paris) de progrcs et de science" ( 1 69). 1 would go even further and say that ultimately the anarchist element unmasks the fiction of any political power which tries to legitimize itself by repressing a violent element that resurfaces nonetheless. It should not be forgotten that anarchy derives from the absence of arche which means both authority and

25 Susan Hiner has similarly pointed out the role of the explosion in the formation of the plot: "... it is the bomb which paradoxically holds this novel together, uniting the many unruly narnJtive thn:ads of the story linked tu various social stmta, and more importantly, reuniting the two estmnged brothers, the one representing the Chureh and the other representing Science" (254).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 96. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=96

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origin, thus denying any legitimate foundation for power. As I have tried to show in the previous section, this ambivalent position of anarchy at a manifest ideological level is paralleled at the narrative level via a fragmentary formal element that undermines the namralist project of realist representation. We are here at the very threshold of a modernist aesthetic that will recuperate this formal clement and integrate it into its artistic fabric as a repository of subversive forces. None of this i s really new in Zola's work, and, in the last chapter, we tried to expose how Germinal juggles with this very same conundrum of subversive and coercive anarchist aspects at both the ideological and narrative levels. Yet, something significant has shifted from the former novel to the latter: in Germinal, the unfolding of the narrative reaches its climax with the final destruction of the Voreux; in Paris, the catastrophe is situated at the beginning of the book, signaled by the post-apocalyptic atmosphere already mentioned. Furthermore, the "catastrophe" occurs in the last chapter of the first book, rather than in the conclusion of the novel, which was the case in Germinal. This sequential displacement that demarcates Paris from the former work suggests a major shift in Zola's constructions of nar ratives, and by extension, of the role of anarchy within them. 1 would like to conclude this chapter by explaining the move towards utopia registered at the end of the novel as an ideological gambit that neutralizes the anarchist subversive potential altogether, what Susan Hiner has aptly called "the cultivation of anarchism as evolutio nism" (256). During the fOUlth section of the last book, a ceremony honoring the Basilica has brought together over ten thousand faithful to the Butte. The reader might recall that this was precisely the initial scene imagined by Zola i n the Ebauche for Guillaume's terrorist attack: "en pleine horreur, pendant une ccrcmonie religieuse, dix mille personnes tuees" (Noiray, Notice of Paris, 652). In the novel, Guillaume had decided to choose this particular day to destroy the church by igniting his powerful explosive that he had transported to the foundations of the Saerc-Ca:ur. As the mine in Germinal, this underground space plays here the role of an anarchic topos that buttresses the social structure. As Thomas, one of Guillaume's sons, explains to Pierre: Vous n'avez jamais eu I'idee de visiter les rondations de la basilique. C'est tout un rnonde [ ... ] ils ont creuse plus de quatre-vingts puilS, dans lesqucls ils ont coule du beton, pour poser leur eglise sur ces quatre-vingts colonnes souterraines. [ ...] On ne les voit pas, rnais ce sont bien ellcs qui portent, au dessus de Paris, ce monument d'absurditc el d'affront (1528).

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The fragile base upon which society rests is emphasized by the holes that undcnninc the solidity of the foundations: On ctai! dans les randaliolls, on y voyait un de ees pili ers, un de ees puilS au 1 0n avail coule du beton, pour soutenir l'cdifice. C'etait contrc Ie pilier meme que Ie lroll s'ellfon�ait, soit fifure naturelle lezardalll Ie terrain, soil fente profonde produitc par un lasscmcnt. D'autrcs pilicrs s'indiquaicnt aux a]cnlours, que la lezarde paraissait aussi gagner, par des fendil1emellts ramifies en tous sens" (1537, emphasis added).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 97. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=97

'

At this later stage of the book, Pierre has become a better narrator, intuiting the impending catastrophe planned by Guillaume.26 The day before the ceremony, he sees his brother going into the foundations of the church, a fact that alerts him to the plot: "[ . . . ] Ie ercpuseule tom bait. Et Pierre, qui etait sorti Ie premier, eut, it cette minute vague, une vision dont I'inattendu Ie stupefia d'abord. II apen;ut nettement son frere Guillaume sortant de la porte, du trou beant qui descendait aux substructions de la basilique" ( 1 53 1 ) . Furthermore, he becomes ubiquitous, listening to his brother's conversations to piece the story together: "[.. . ] un mot qu'il entendit I'arreta, Ie fit ecouter, sans scrupules, cache derriere une haute bibliotheque toumante" ( 1 532). When Guillaume decides that it is time to commit the crime and bids farewell to his family oblivious to his plan,27 Pierre starts to follow him. Unlike his blind chase after Salvat, this time he is certain to find Guillaume i n the foundation of the church: "[ ...] il [Pierre] savait au i l [Guillaume] allait, une certitude intime, absoiue, lui disait qu'il l e retrouverait it cette porte ouvrant sur les substructions de l a basilique" ( 1 537). He finds his brother about to light the explosive

26

In fact, Pierre becomes hyper�sensitive to his role of ersatz omniscient narrator, interpreting the least innocuous words as laden with meaning. The paranoia of realism comes to the fore in those passages where Pierre tries to fit everything into his puzzle: "Pierre [ .. .] bouleverse par les mots les plus innocents, qui prenaient pour lui des seils terribles" ( 1536). Slight details in the narrative take on an ominous meaning as the reader also tries to put the plot together. At one point, tired of the incessant chiming of the Savoyarde, the church's bell, Guillaume states: [ ] ceux qui voudronl ne pas en avoir les oreilles eassces, feront bien de fenner leurs fenetres" (1 534), already foreshadowing Guillaume's plans to destroy the Saere�Creur. Furthermore, Marie asks him to go to the rue des Martyrs to run an errand for her, a detail which again has great implications once Guillaume's plot is revealed. 27 Except for Mere-Grand, however, who has helped Guillaume hide his ideas from the rest of the family. "

...

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powder hidden in a hole; at this very moment, Pierre pieces the story together: Et Pierre, a voir son Frere penche ainsi, tel qu'un mineur examinant une derniere fois la mine28 qu'il a preparee, avant de mettre Ie feu a la meche, elll fa brusque divination de f 'enorme el terrijianle chose: des quantites eonsidembles du terrible explosif apportees la, vingt voyages faits avec precaution, a dcs heures ehoisies, toute eette poudre versce dans la felurc, eontre Ie pilier, d'ou e1le s'ctait rcpandue au fond des plus minces fentes, satumnt Ie sol it une grande profondeur, formant de la sorte une mine naturelle d'une puissance incalculable ( 1 537, emphasis added). 29

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 98. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=98

As in the first book, then, the anarchist plot serves as the center piece of the actual plot of the novel, bringing together disparate clements just at the moment when a fragmentary explosion is being exposed. This impending disaster is likened to a geological cataclysm, which, i n Guillaume's own words, serves to bring about progress: "De l a mort ou il croyait deja etre, qu'i mportaient quelques existences, qui retour neraient, avec la sienne, dans I'eternel torrent de la vie? Pas une phase du monde ne s'etait produite, sans que des milliards d'etres fussent broyes" ( 1 5 4 1 ).30 I n fact, the dominant image in the last section is once again that of a volcanic explosion: "Et tout d'un coup, c'etait la 28 The words "mineur" and "mine" obviously lie this passage to Germinal, where, as poinled Oul in the first chapter, Zola exploits the double meaning of "mine" as coal mine but also as an explosive mine, 29 We first learn of Guillaume's plan for this weapon in Book II, chapter 5. Ironically, after confessing his dream of a fraternal commune, he goes on to explain how the powerful explosive that was used in Salvat's attellfat will serve as a powerful weapon: "Cette poudre, il en avait trouve l'emploi dans un engin de guerre, des bombcs lancecs par un canon special, dont I'usage devait assurer une foudroyante vietoire a I'annt,-e qui s'en servirai\. L'anm&e ennemi serait detruite en quelques heures, les vi lles assiegees tomberaient en poudre au moindre bombardement" (1326). That Guillaume's will is driven by an ethos of vengeance against Gennany becomes salient when he unveils his plan of giving the powerful weapon to the French government: "[...] i[ avail resolu, apres des mois d'anxieuses reflexions, de donner son invention a la France, afin de lui assurer [a victoire certaine dans sa prochaine guerre avec l'Allemagne" ( 1 326). World order is assured by a balance of terror; by menacing its neighbors with annihilation, Paris can finally reign as supreme arbiter of the world and impose its revolutionary heritage: "11 fallait que Paris rul victorieux, pour que Ie monde fUt sauve" ( 1 326). 30 This passage echoes Guillaume's earlier speech in Pierre's room; he had stated at that point: "Toule marche en avant a sacrifi(: des milliards d'existencc. Notre (:troitc justice se revolte, nous lraitons la nature d'atroce mere, mais si nOllS n'excusons pas Ie volcan, il faul pourtant bien Ie subir en savants prevenus, lorsqu'i[ eclatc" (1323).

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fouclre, Ie tremblement de terre, Ie volcan qui s'ouvrait, qui cngloutissait, en un flot de flamme ot de [umee, l'eglise cnticre, avec son peuple de croyants" ( 1 538), Guillaume makes the comparison explicit when he cries out; "Et qu'il [Ie temple] ecrase sous ses ruines Ie peuple de ses fideles, pour que 1a catastrophe, telle qu'une des anciennes revolutions geologiques, retentisse aux entrailles de ,'humanite, la renouvelle ot la change!" ( 1 539). The dialectic between narrative and anarchy is still respected at this stage of the novel. Pierre, however, tries to dissuade his brother from igniting the powder, calling on his dream of fraternal harmony and his design to bring an end to all wars. Upon Pierre's instigation, Guillaume unmasks his uncaIll1ingly prophetic project for a balance of terror that uliimately underlay the menlality of the cold war: 11 parla du secret donI il avait re<;u la confidence, de cet engin de guerre, capable de detruire des armees, de reduire des vi lies en poudre [ ] queUe delivranee, quel eri de sou!agemcnt, Ie jour ou l'apparition d'un engin formidable, aneantissant d'un coup les armees, balayanl les villes, rendrait la guerre impossible, forcerait les peuples au desannement general! ( 1 541-42).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 99. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=99

...

It is easy to pinpoint the similarities between this precarious balance a nightmare scenario that achieves order only by tracing a limit horizon of total annihilation-and the larger framework that we have exposed at work within narrative in general. I n this model, any power structure relies on violence and anarchy to buttress its hegemony. The brothers' fight symbolizes the class struggle that plagues French society, Guillaume being the revolutionary that represents the lower classes ( 1 540). Pierre tries to bring him to "reason" by evacuating any violent impulse from his struggle against injustice. Guillaume, pushed to his limit, picks up a brick and tries to kill Pierre. The representative of the lower classes is defined as the violent element that gnaws at the social/family structure: "Dans ses yeux [Guillaume] troubles, l 'ec1air fratricide avait lui. II se baissa vivement, ramassa une brique oubliee, la leva en I'air de ses deux poings, comme une massuc [ .. .]. Deja la brique s'abattait. Mais les deux poings durent devier, elle ne lui effieura qu'une epaule; et i l tomba dans l'ombre, sur les genoux" ( 1544). I n an unprecedented reconci liation in Zola's corpus, the brothers quickly embrace in harmonious fraternity: Et les deux freres, aux bras 1'UIl de I'autre, continuerent a causer Ires bas, baignes de lannes. La bougie, brusquemelll, s'acheva, s'eteignit, sans qu'ils en eussent conscience. Sous la nuil d'encre, au milieu du silence qui elait retombC profond et souverain, leur lannes de tendresse rCdemptrice cQulerent a I'infini (1 545).

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The contrived fraternity evacuates the social struggles i n a wishful healing of the division of classes in general, and, 1 would argue, of the Commune's Civil War in particular. In Les ROllgon-Macqllarl, the entire plot structure revolves around the contlict of siblings-from La Fortllne des Rougon, which sets against each other Pierre Rougon and Antoine Macquart, to La Debiicle, where the Versaillais Jean Mac quart kills his ersatz brother, the Communard Maurice Levasseur. if Etienne's political journey had been an initiation into class struggle, and if the ending of Germinal intimates the final struggle in which the proletariat will confront the bourgeoisie ( 1 5 9 1 ), Guillaume's prise de conscience works a rebours, by glossing over social divisions. Another first in Zola's work, perhaps with the exception of Au Bonheur des Dames, the final catastrophe is avoided as the Sacre Creur is spared the fate of the Voreux. In fact, the final explosion has been securely ensconced in an extra-diegetic space within the narrative; Victor Mathis's terrorist attack in a cafe-reminiscent of Emile Henry's bomb which exploded in the Cafe Terminus on February 12, 1894-is not portrayed in the novel, but rather reported by Janzen. The latter visits the brothers in their Montmartrian workshop to announce the news: "Vaus savez qu'on vient de jeter une bombe dans Ie cafe de I'Univers, sur Ie boulevard. II y a eu trois bourgeois de tues" (1 548). Janzen's presence at the end of the novel underscores Guillaume's philosophical changes and the differences between Germinal and Paris: II [Janzen1 venait tres rarement, sans qu'on sut jamais de quelle ombre il sorait, t ni dans quelles tcnebres il allait rentrer. Pendant des mois, il disparaissail, et on Ie revoyail a l'improvisle, en terrible passanl d'une heure, au passe inconnu, a la vie ignoree [.. J I I eut un mince sourire dooaigneux ( .. .]. D'un geste large, il fit entendre Ie sans-patrie qu'il ctait, promenant par-dessus les fronticres son rcve de fratcrnitc sanglantc ( 1 548).

Souvarine is resurrected through the words used to describe Janzen "ombre," "tenebres," "inconnu," "sourire dedaigneux," "d'un geste large," "sans-patrie," "n!ve," "fraternite sanglante." The reappearance of Souvarine in this scene demarcates the ending of Germinal from that of Paris. The "fratemite sanglante" and the catastrophe which close the fanner novel contrast sharply with the communal hamlony represented by the two brothers' embrace. Technological advances undergo a parallel revision in the novel. The concept of entropy is annulled in the new motor discovered by Guillaume within his workshop, thus evacuating the violence inherent in any technological development; herein lies another major shift between the two novels. Firstly, the narratives treat different moments

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in capitalist production. Whereas, in Germinal, we are squarely in the midst of the first phase of industrial revolution brought about by the motive force of steam and its repercussions in the coal and iron industries, Paris portrays the emergence of a mass consumer society resulting from the conjunction of a leisure culture and an accelerated capitalist mode of production. The shifts are symbolized by the bicycle and the advent of the automobile. Biking is to be understood as a leisure activity-not a productive one-as attested to by Pierre's and Marie's ride through the Saint-Gennain forest portrayed in Book IV, chapter 3. When Antoine, one of Guillaume's sons, announces that he cannot go with Marie and Pierre to the forest, Guillaume's fiancee declares: "Ah! tant pis, je vous [Pierre] emmene, nous ne serons que tous les deux! [ ... J Je veux absolument que vous connaissiez Jajaie de rouler sur une belle route, parmi de beaux arbres" ( 1 444, emphasis added). Marie becomes an advertisement for the recreational machines when she assures Pierre of the solidity of their bikes: [ . ] e1le Ie rassurait en disant les merites de leurs machines, qui toutes dcux sortaient de I'usine Gr"dndidier. C'elaient des Lisettes, Ie modele populaire auquel Thomas lui-meme avail lr"dvai116, perfectionnant la construction, et que les magasins du BOil Marche vendaienl courammenl cent cinquante francs. Peut eIre avaient-e1les ['aspect un peu lourd, mais elles etaienl d'une solidi Ie el d'une resistance parfaites. De vraies machines pour faire de la route, disait-el1e (1447).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 101. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=101

.

.

The Lison, the infamous train of La Bete lIumaine, has become the Lisette, a bourgeois gadget of leisure destined to be consumed individually. The penetration of "ad" talk into Marie's own speech she sounds like a saleswoman by naming their price, cataloguing their virtues despite their massive appearance, and even mentioning where one can buy them----demonstrates the way that capitalist production has insinuated itself in the consciousness of consumers. Furthermore, the search for a motor that will facilitate the production of automobiles takes center stage in the novel. Thomas works for Grandidier, the factory that assembles the bicycles that Pierre and Marie enjoy; the boss awaits the invention of this motor to embark on the production of automobiles: "L'usinc recommenyait a prospercr, se re1evait chaque jour davantage, grace a la fabrication des bicyclettes; et ron disait que Grandidier n'attendait que Ie petit moteur, dont Thomas cherchait la solution, pour se lancer dans la fabrication en grand des voitures automobiles" ( 1 429). Whereas formerly Grandidier's factory produced steam motors, it now searches for other energy sources:

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Autrefois, I'usine avait fabriquc des petits moteurs a vapeur. Mais ils semblaicnt condamncs par la pratique, on cherchait une autre force. L'clectricitc, la reine prevue de demain, n'ctait pas encore possible, a cause du poids des appareils qu'elle neeessitait. Et il n'y avait donc que Ie petrole, avec des incovenienls si graves, que la victoire et 1(1 fortune seraient surement pour Ie constructeur qui Ie remplacemil par un agenl de force nouveau, inconnu encore. La solulion du problcme etail la, trouvcr el appliqucr la force ( 1 528, emphasis added).

The profit motive drives the research for new power sources as the "invention" cog is caught in the machinery of capitalist production. By combining the destructive forces of Guillaume's explosive and Thomas's motor, the awaited technological breakthrough is achieved:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 102. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=102

Un matin, aprcs I'effondrement de tOllS SCS cnonnes el chimcriqllcs projets. Guillaume, devant I 'explosif terrible, decouvert par lui, desonnais inutilise, avait eu la brusque inspiration de I'employer comme force motrice, d'essayer de Ie substituer au pCtrole, dans ce mOleur que son fils aine etudiait depuis si longlemps, pour I'usine Grandidier ( 1 522).

Jacques Noiray has rightly pointed to the new motor as a shift i n Zola's treatment of the technological object within his reuvre. Noiray recognizes two stages in the development of Zola's portrayal of machines. First, as seen in the previous chapter, Zola uses the model of the stearn engine and the horizon of a catastrophe due to overproduction. In his latter works, Noiray claims that Zola's work deviates from a faithful reflection of reality ("une etude trop etroite de la realite" (451)) to reach a euphoric utopia where catastrophe no longer holds the narrative in check (45 1 ). He interprets this movement as the replacement of a thennodynamic model by an electric one: "Alors que I'altemance des cycles de destruction et de creation sug gere, avec ses crises, ses bloc ages et ses spasmes, la marche convulsive de la machine a vapeur, I'expansion ham10nieuse et continue du progres qui lui succede evoque desonnais Ie fonctionne ment regie de la machine electrique" (457). This displacement i s achieved at a price: steering away from the naturalist project, according to Noiray, Zola no longer presents a technical universe imbedded in social struggles-as in Germinal-but rather assigns to it a symbolic and transcendent function: "[ ... ] les caractcres syrnboliques de la machine tendent [ ... ] a s'accentuer. [.,,] L'analyse socio-econo mique, la rcflexion politique, font place it un simple acte de foi, dont la repetition continuelle prend valeur de demonstration" (224, 232, 1 9 8 1 ). Noiray claims that this philosophical shift happened at the very moment that Zola was conceiving Paris-between 1 893 and 1 895. According to him, during this period, Zola abandoned a Darwinian conception of the social to replace it with a dream of a harmonious

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 103. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=103

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and fraternal community (456-57, 1 9 8 1 ), not far from Guillaumes own ideal conception of anarchism. Noiray has aptly catalogued the aesthetic "face-lift" of the ma chine that inevitably accompanied such philosophical changes, including its reduction in size, its cleanliness and absence of noise (475). He has further shown how this new machine is simple and toy like. Finally, and probably most importantly for our present study, he asserts that this new machine is completely devoid of any violence reconfigured as entropic decay: "Ce qu'elles [les machines] sont chargees de signifier, c'est 13 reconciliation finale de I'humanite, dans ce qu'elle a de plus essentie1, avec une technique definitivement purgee de ses forces destructives" (474, 482). Although I am in complete agreement with Noiray's meticulous description of the role of the technical object in Zola's work, I feel that his analysis is incomplete. On the one hand, he overlooks the parallels between the domestication of the machine and the evacuation of violence in the narrative and political structures that were studied above. On the other hand, he does not offer a convincing argument about the reason for such changes. Noiray does suggest that these shifts reflect movements in the economic infrastructure: "Observons tout d'abord qu'il s'agit it. peu pres de ce qu'on a appele parfois l a 'deuxieme revolution industrielle,' qui correspond it. partir de l a fin du XIXe siecle au devcioppement des applications mccaniques de I'cner gie electrique" (484). Noiray is right in assuming the economic conditions as the ultimate determining factor in the aesthetic changes of the machine within Zola's ceuvre. I would suggest, however, that it is the advent o f mass production and consumption----embodied in the bicycle and automobile industries-rather than the electric model that are behind such changes. The advent of a leisure industry relied heavily on the capitalist machinery that had been founded during the first phase of industrial production. The new motor discovered by Thomas participates in this accelerated phase of capitalism by facilitating the production of automobiles. This particular connection bctwcen mass consumption and utopia will be central to the next chapter in which we will analyze the relationship between the World�s Fair of 1900 and the anarchic commune depicted in Travail. That analysis confirms a posteriori the closure of a critical space in Paris that blinds the subject to his or her position within a capitalist society. Whereas in the naturalist mode, the anarchist voiee was still active albeit suppressed, in the utopian mode this voice has been silenced. Drawing a comparison between the ideological tenor in Germinal and

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Paris, Clive Thomson has concluded that the latter in fact resolves capitalist contradictions through a utopian wishful thinking:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 104. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=104

La lecture de Paris ne provoque pas du tout la meme reaction inquietante que Germinal. C'est jllstemenl paree que la confrontation entre la bourgeoisie et la classe ouvriere n'y apparail pas. En effet, l a vision optimisle de I'avenir qui se trouve a la fin du roman cst une fa�on dc masquer les contradictions de la societe capitaliste. Maint critique a refuse d'ctre convaincu par une telle vision de I'avenir, la trouvant peu justifiee dans un roman ou la degradation de la classe ouvriere et la depravation de la bourgeoisie sont peintes d'une maniere si vive. Paris, en se touman! vers des idees utopistes, est un roman qui neglige un present contmdictoire et accablant (Thomson 24, "Troisieme Repllblique").

The fact that the new motor is produced in Guillaume's artisan workshop confirms this wish-fantasy. The latter space is depicted throughout the novel as a pre-industrial haven where family life can flourish, contrasting sharply with the factory of Grandidier3 1 and the dysfunctional family of the Duvillards. When Pierre first visits Guillaume's home, for example, the narrator describes it thus: "Toute la famille vivait dans cette salle, du matin au soir, en une tendre et etroite communaute de travail. Chacun s'y etait installe a sa guise, y avait sa place choisie, ou il pouvait s'isoler dans sa besogne" ( 1 277). This description in Book II is followed by images of Paris as a vast field from which will spring the future justice, thus foreshadowing the end of the novel. 32 In the end, this artisan space is valorized over the factory as a retreat from the vicissitudes of capitalist production. The reactionary vision of anarchy triumphs over its more subversive potential as the social struggle is neatly resolved and the individual terrorists fighting under the anarchist banner chastised:

31 Gmndidier's wife had become crazy upon losing a child, and her presence in the factory assimilates this space with familial problems: "[ ...] madame Grandidier, la Iriste jeune femme. devenue folle a la suite d'une fievre puerpcmle, causee par la perte d'un enfant, el que son mari, obslinement, tendrement, gardait pres de lui. dans Ie grand pavilion qu'i l occup ait a cote de l'usine" ( 1 429). 32 Ferguson explains that these images of vast fields undermine the urban context of Paris by appealing to agricultuml motifs: "These associations with the land reconfigure both Paris and revolution and convert urban culture into agriculture. [...] what counts in Paris i s not the familiar dnlmas ufthe public city but the \!Cry private drama of the ideal (and idealized) family that takes place within the home, within the artisan workshop, that is, within the space of the novel itself' (208).

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Explosive Narratives [. . .] que1 avcuglcmcni de eroire que [a destruction, que l'assassinat puissc eire un actc fccond, cnscmcn�ant Ie sol d'unc hcurcusc ct large rccoltc! On arrive tout de suile au bout de la violence, et elle n'cst bonne qu'a cxaspcrer Ie sentiment de solidarile, meme chez Ctux pour qui ron tue. Le peuple, la grande foule se revolte tonIre ]'isole qui croit faire justice (1 565).33

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 105. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=105

Although the tone of this passage is similar to the ending of Germinal, the presence of Souvarine's consciousness in the latter allowed for a more progressive reading of the text. Paris docs not allow for such a compromise, all revolutionary practices condemned as the narrative moves into a utopian mode. The innocuous strain of anarchism there fore wins out in Zola's novel. By excising all traces of violence from narrative constructions, revolutionary aspirations and technological objects, Zola's wishful thinking reveals his fear of class warfare. His position draws closer to that of the other French author of "underground" spaces , the Victor Hugo of Les Miserables or of Quatrevingt-Treize, who brushes aside the divisions in French society to promote a sentimental and mythic Peuple. As Prendergast insightfully demonstrates in his reading of Les Miserables, [.,.J 'socialism' is to be taken seriously bul provided, in this novel of the sewer and excrement, it is not the 'intestinal' kind (i.e. less devoted to spiritual tmnsfigumlion than to cconomic cmancipation) [... ] in theory the proj ect and thc prospect of revolutionary emancipation arc offered as central to the novel's meaning. [ ...] In practice, however, revolution is fine, provided it never actually succeeds, or provided no revolution succeeds after the great one of 1789 (97-8).

find this criticism very pertinent to Zola's Paris, where the same strategy is at work. The novel 's final scene presents a city invaded by wheat fields where all class distinctions have been effaced: II semblait qu'une mcme poussee de vie, qu'une meme floraison avait recouvert la ville entiere, l'hamlOnisant, n'en faisant qu'un mcme champ sans bomes, couvert dc la mcme fecondite. Ou ble, du ble partout, un infini dc ble donI la houle d'or roulait d'un bout de I'horizon a l ' autre Et Ie soleil oblique baignait ,

33 In reality, the rich popular culture that developed around the figure of Ravachol contmdicts the notion that the popular masses rejcctcd individual acts of terrorism against the bourgeois order; "Ravachol's name was applied to an updatcd version of the French Revolutionary 'Carmab'l1ole," whose old refrain 'Vive Ie son de ['explosion" seemed newly relevant in the em of dynamite [.. .]." His name even became a verb, 'ravacholiser,' which meant to blow up (Sonn 1 24, 1 989).

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ainsi Paris entier d'un egal resplendissement, et e'etait bien [a moisson, aprcs les semailles (1 567).

The romantic, pastoral quality of this final scene confirms the triumph of a reactionary type of anarchism and justifies the comparisons with the romantic style of HugO.34 Furthermore, the narrative stands still, as all conflict is wished away. Rather than the triumph of evolution over violence,3s then, the narrative rehearses a false resolution of the dialectic through the forging of a transcendent space where time becomes irrelevant. In so doing, the narrative implodes and the book aptly finishes at this moment of timelessness.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 106. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=106

34 On the romantic roots of this novel, see in particular Susan Hiner's article entitled "Paris Pastoral: Refiguring Anarchy in Zola's Fin de Siccle." 35 Robert Viti, in his article entitled "Science, the Church and Revolution: Time Wars in Zola's Les Trois Villes," argues that the conclusion to Paris reveals the triumph of a "smooth flow of the predictable, orderly time of progress" (420). To speak of time, however, at the end of the narrative is to replace it within a paradigm of evolution and catastrophe. I prefer Noiray's term of"Uchronie" which entails a space where there is no time.

Chapter 3 The Anarchic Commune As World's Fair

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 107. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=107

in Travail Had Zola taken close heed of Souvarine's ominous warnmg, "Tous les raisonnernents sur ]'avenir sont criminels, paree qu'its empechent la destmction pure et entravent la marche de 1a revolution" (Germinal, 1343), his project of Les Quatre EVQngiles would have never seen the light of day. For the anarchist terrorist, then, utopian blueprints for a future society are anathema. Yet, Zola�s tetralogy, composed of Fecondit€:, Travail, Verite, and the unwritten Justice, marks a significant shift in the writer's aesthetic practices from a passive rendering of reality into a utopian mode that flees the contingencies of the historical. In this vein, the EVQngiles continue and complete the vision that we had analyzed at the conclusion of our last chapter. The links between these two novels are underscored by Pierre's own revelation in Paris of a new Gospel according to science: Qu'on donne done des si6e\es a eette religion de la science, dont In sourde poussee s'annonee de toutes parts, et l'on verra se eonstituer en un nouvel Evangile les admirables idees d'un Fourier, Ie desir redevenu Ie levier qui souleve Ie monde, Ie travail aceeptc par tous, honon::, reglc eomme Ie mecanisme mcme de la vic naturelle et soeinle, les cnergies passionnelles de l'homme exeilees, eonlentees, utilisees enfin pour Ie bonheur humain! ( 1 561).

Despite the novel 's enthusiastic reception, initially, in some circles, I Travail,2 not unlike the other novels in the Evangiles series, I As Case explains in his book-length analysis of Travail, La Cite ideale dalls Travail (['Emile 20/(1, "[",] c'est eet ouvrage qui fut Ie plus aeelame des socialisles de lendances tout a fait divergentes, Le 9 juin 1 90 1 , les fourieristes organiserent un banquet en I'honneur de I'auteur el scion Lanoux, 'le livre fut commente comme une Bible par les universites populaires qui font deferler sur In France des vagucs des cours du soir benevoles.' II suffit de lire la eorrespondance de Zola [",] pour apprecier

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 108. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=108

has suffered from neglect by French scholars and, when analyzed, it has sparked off a number of negative commentaries.3 Jean Jaures set the tone when he criticized the work for embracing a pacific revolution;4 Ternois detected in the Evangiles a flight from historical vicissitudes;5 and, Lukacs asserted that "In the course of his [Zola's] life he gradually came ever closer to socialism, although he never got beyond a paler version of Fourier's utopianism, a version lacking, however, Fourier's brilliantly dialectic social criticism" (85). Simi larly, Case asserts: "il n'est gm':re raisonnable de prendre comme point de depart 13 realite de la fin du dix-neuvieme siecie, avec une etude assez profonde de ses structures ainsi que de leur enracinement dans les mceurs, pour detruire ensuite arbitrairement cette realite en fonction de certaines theories mal digereesll (65). Furthermore, Baguley contends that the divorce between reality and utopia i n Travail results in a pure discourse: "La veritable utopie de Zola n e consiste peut-etre pas a avoir construit une societe ideale sans dissi dence et conflit, mais a avoir Clabon� un pur discours, sans denotation precise, Iibere de la representation d'une realite que, beatement, it evacue" ( 1 2 1 , 1980). These critics, then, express a certain nostalgia for the realist paradigm, evaluating it in terms of its potential for social criticism by

a quel point Travail fut accueilli comme un ouvrage d'importance dans l'education des ouvriers" (5). 2 Unless otherwise stated, all references to the novel come from Emile lola's (Euvres Comph}/es (Volume VIII) of the Cercle du Livre Prccieux edition by Henri Milterand (1 966). 3 Henri Mitterand incites scholars to treat the Quarre Evallgiles with the critical respect that they deserve: "Pellt-on eSpCrer qu'un jour s'ouvre sur Les Qualre Eva/! giles un chantier d'etudes serieuses et approfondies, leur rendant leur juste impor tance, pl utot que de camoufler I'ignorance en jugements condescendants?" CLe quatrieme Zola," 88). It should be also noted that the novel has recently recaptured the interest of leftist groups. As Julia Przybos asserts, "In 1979, Verdier published an edition (of Travail] prefaced by workers from LIP, the bankrupt watch plant taken over and rescued by its employees, a 400 strong collective of men and women who worked and lived together between 1973 and 1 974. When they came across lola's Travail, they compared their experience with those of the Crecherie collective founded by Luc Froment" (1 85). 4 On this note, Speirs writes: "Jean Jaures, dans ses deux articles et sa conference, fait de tres serieuses reserves a propos de Travail et des theories evolutionnistes de la rUonne zolienne" (220, 1 974). 5 Ternois concludes his monumental analysis of Les Trois Villes with the following sentence: "ll [Zola] ctait las, il s'est refugic dans ses 'Evangiles'" (679).

The Anarchic CommUlle As World '8 Fair

III

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 109. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=109

incorporating within the novel a plurality of voices, an option that i s apparently annulled in a utopian mode. Of utopian fiction in general and by extension, Zola's Travail-Meakin affirms that Hit creates an image of total integration [ ... ] it projects this image by means of a monologic discourse where the elimination of otherness is enacted in a totalitarian narrative mode. [ ... ] By eliminating differential discourse, Zola ceases to be a novelist and succumbs to romance" (99, 104).6 Laville has also described the utopian insistence on uniformity in her article entitled "Les Evangiles, entre epuisement et modemite" i n which she states: "A I'evocation de la ffllure, de la tare, de la fatalite a succede I'obsession de I'unite, de I'unanimite, de la reproduction it !'identique et du progres" (Lire/De-lire, Laville 326). The correspon dence between ideology and literary form underpins these studies: the utopian Evangiles are didactic and totalitarian whereas the naturalist Rougon-Macquart volumes are democratic. For all the condemnation of Zola's utopia as a dictatorial, closed discourse from which all ambiguity has been excised, however, critics have not failed to suggest a wide range of competing interpretations of the novel. Henri Mitterand, for example, has advanced a provocative proto-fascist reading of the novel,7 whereas Baguley and Sergent have put forth a republican reading of the text, calling it a gospel of the

6 Many critics have pointed out the inherent contradiction between narrative and utopia, claiming that the latter cancels out the fonner by suspending time and space, the very elements that coordinate the plot of any novel. Zola himself was aware of this disparity. He had consciously accepted a change in his writing style; in the preparatol)' notes to Fecondile, Zola writes: '''Je voudrais un optimisme eclatan\. C'esl la conclusion naturelle de toute mon leuvre: apres la longue constatalion de la realite, une prolongation dans demain ... Je suis content surtout de pouvoir changer ma maniere, de pouvoir me livrer a tout mon lyrisme et a toute mon imagination'" (OC VIII, 506). Jotting down the disadvantages of such a shift, Zola remarks: '''Ennuyer Ie public, faire une ceuvre factice et morte, du moment que je sortirai de I'humanitc, de la verite vraie ... Une "Icaire" [read "Utopie"} est illisible... redouter l'idylle, Ie fleuve de lail. La nccessilc de loups dans la bergerie'" (DC VIII, 506). Similarly, Evenhuis, in his analysis of the messianic theme in Zola's leuvre, asserts that "utopianism may have literary implications: it is clear that a writer cannot step out of time and conflict and still be able to conceive a plot that lends itselfto drama" (234). 7 Mitterand writes: "La societe ici revee est une utopie, eertes, mais I'utopie d'une dictature paternaliste, dont I'ideologie parait en fin de compte assez prochl.:: de celtl.:: Revolution nationale qui inspirait les institutions de l'Etat fran�ais entre 1 940 et 1944 et s'omait du sigle 'Travail, Famil1e, Patrie'" ( 185).

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Third Republic.8 As already noted, socialist factions embraced Travail as a workers' bible and other critics have classified its ideological position as that ofa humanitarian socialism or bourgeois paternalism a 1a Hugo.9 Furthermore, the facile distinction between realist representation and utopian fantasy does not withstand scrutiny. First, utopian writing does not correspond to a creation ex nihilo as it maintains a dialectic relation to the real albeit in the mode of a wish-fantasy which glosses over all contradictions: Lc roman utopique. par definition, cst doublemcnt une fiction: en tant que roman ct en tan! qu'utopic. Et pouftonl, Ie problcme de la representation du reel y ocoJP(,; �me place allssi centrale fJ.lIe dans Ie roman rf.alisle: (I'ahord parce qll'�n ( meme temps qu'il plonge dans Ie futuf, ce roman donne, en negatif, une representation du present; ensuite et surtout paree que Ie projet qu'il eontient se veut, a des degres divers, desirable et realisable (Vindt 59).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 110. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=110

Casting an inverse image of reality, utopian projections remain critical tools that expose the injustices of "what is" by suggesting "what ought to be. "10 Secondly, Les Evallgiles do not reject all naturalist descriptions as it integrates them with utopian elements: "Fantastic elements that defy credulity co-exist, in these novels, with a realism frank and gritty for its time. Often called utopias, the Evangiles nevertheless contain many pages with frightful images of social corruption, cruelty, and human suffering" (Lasseigne 295). 1 1 By juxtaposing different aesthetic prac-

8 On this point, Baguley asserts: "Malgre leur contradictions et leurs singularites, on retrouve dans ees eneombrants dispositifs romanesques [Les Emllgifes], oil se melent Ie polemique, l'ev<mgelique et I'utopique [ .. ] les tensions memes de la lIIeme Republique it la fin du siecie. [.. ] la parole du romancier est destinee au grand public. 'II faut,' cerit-il [lola] dans ses notes preliminaircs, 'que ces romans n'aillent pas qu'a des lettres'. lis sont ainsi reellement des textes republicains. [ ... ] Reperer, meme sommairement, les themes principaux de ces textes, c'est passer en revue, ou peu s'en faut, I'essentiel du programme republicain" (Baguley 108, 1 1 0, 1 980). 9 On this point, see in particular Brian Nelson's article, "lola and the Ideology of Messianism." 10 This is the position espoused by Sergent when she writes: "L 'expression mythique n'equivaut done pas a une fuitc---o --<: mme l'ont pretendu bcaueoup de critiques des EV(lllgiles de lola, mais a une prise de position vis a vis des problemes poses par la situation sociale et politique du XIXe sicc1e" (86). I I Evelyne Cosset, in her study of lola's Evangiles entitled Les Qllatre Evallgifes dEmite Zola: Espace, temps, persollllages, concludes with the following obser.

.

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113

tices, the novel reveals the seams of naturalism as genre and contains in vitro the evolution of Zola's own stylistic changes. Among the pro cedures that the reader recognizes as "naturalist," one finds the interest in the industrial world and the concomitant glossary of technical terms, the contrast between the upper and lower classes achieved through lengthy descriptions of their respective milieux, Fernande�s masturbation scene and eventual rape by Ragu, the catastrophic fire that purges Beauc1air from the bourgeoisie and that brings about the destruction ofL'Abime, the arms factory reminiscent of the Voreux in Germinal. Herein lies the value ofZola's Travail a fact that has been neglected by most critics: if naturalism resisted any generic classification, 12 the juxtaposition of writing modes-utopian and realist-exposes the set of practi ces that define naturalism as genre: 11 y a bien dans Les Evallgiles un effet de deconstruction du roman naturaliste, et ces tentatives scriputrales ont sans doute aussi mene Zola vers "Ies funerailles du naturalisme." L'auteur a poussc l'experience jusqu'aux Iimites ultimes, jusqu'a l'evinccmcnt du romanesque, les tableaux utopiques constitutant Ie tcrme dc l'evencmemiel, Ie tenne de la narration, Ie terme du temporc1, vcrs l'hallu cination d'un eternel present (Lire/Dc-lire Zola, Laville 326).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 111. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=111

Finally, utopianism had long been a concern for the father of French naturalism. In the introduction to this study, I alluded to Zola's article entitled "Proudhon et Courbet,"13 where he takes a stand against Proudhon's utopian definition of art as "Une representation idealiste de la nature et de nous-memes, en vue du perfectionnement

vations: "L'une des specificitcs de la structure romanesque des Qllatre Eval/giles reside dans un cchange permanent entre Ie 'rccl'-I'illusion rcalistc--ct l'utopie. Presentee comme un prolongement d'un reel ou elle s'enracine, l' utopi e beneficie ainsi d'une impregnation 'realiste' qui la vivifie, lui donne une ossature, lui evite Ie risque d'ineonsistance propre a toute creation fantasmatique" (143). 12 On this point, I direct the readers to Baguley's seminal work on naturalism, Natllralist Fiction: The ElIIl'opic Vision. In his analysis, Baguley states that "one of the more significant consequences [ ...] of the insistence of naturalist writers on the mimetic function of their art is for them to downplay the importance of its literary and generic essence. In fact, it could rather naively be argued that, in so far as their texts achieve the representational effect, merging in with the reality that they purport to depict, they become non-generic, dissociated from the recurrent fonns, codes and conventions of literature itself' ( 5 1 , 1 990). See also Chapter IV, "Une Rhetorique du dcsordre" (pp. 77-93) in Yves Chevrel's study of naturalism, Le N(J(ur(llisme. 1 3 TIle article appeared in two installments of Le Salllt Public, on July 26 and August 3 1 1865.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 112. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=112

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physique et moral de notre espece" (36). Instead, he claims complete independence for the artist's expression: "jc suis diarnetralernent oppose a Proudhon: il veu! que I'art soit Ie produit de la nation, j'exige qu'il soit Ie produit de I' individu" (40). In his text, Zola defines the work of art as "un coin de la creation YU it travers un tempera ment," thus emphasizing the artist's individuality. He concludes by identifying two types of realism: it la Proudhon, which he calls "art rationnel [ ... ] une negation de I'art, une plate illustration de helix communs philosophiques"; it la Zola, which negates the social ("une negation de 13 societe") and celebrates the individual ("une affirmation de J 'individu, en dehors de toutes regles et de toutes necessites sociales") (46). Despite lola's diatribe against the proudhonian conception of art, utopianism was always latent in naturalism. As we have seen, political motivations underlie the descriptions in Germinal; Souvarine was meant to be "une figure effroyable" (Becker 430, 1 986) and Zola wanted the bourgeois to be frightened after reading the text: "Lorsque la greve eclate, explosion d'autant plus violente que la misere, la souf france a ete plus grande. [ ... J il faut que Ie lecteur bourgeois ait un fris son de terreur" (Becker 26 1 , 1 986). Yet, the utopian dream i s marginalized throughout the Rougon-Macquart series: "Malgre I'exal tation Iyrique dont font preuve un Etienne Lantier, un Sigismond Busch ou un Canon, certains details montrent que I'auteur est lucide, et critique, sur Ie caractere flou ou chimerique du discours uto pique" (Cosset 1 38). In the Evangiles, however, this tension will be resolved in favor of utopianism and Travail, in many ways, conforms to the proudhonian ideal outlined above. Three main sources inform the utopian element in this particular novel: the literal)' legacy of Thomas More, the ideological framework of Fourier, and Zola's account of his visit to Godin's familistere de Guise. Indeed, the novel follows the conceits of a traditional utopian novel, as Laurent Portes has demonstrated in his article "Zola et l'utopie." As the most salient characteristics of the genre, he cites the following: 1 ) the description of a harmonious society; 2) the exposition format inaugurated by Thomas More and i n which an outside character visits the accomplishments of the com mune; and 3) the didactic nature of the society from which dissent has been banished (201). Furthermore, from the onset of the Evangiles'

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 113. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=113

The Anarchic CommUlle As World's Fair

liS

project, Zola had planned to illustrate Fourier's theories in Travail through the creation of "Ia Cite, une ville de I'avenir, une sorte de phalanst';re" (Baguley 76, 1 973).14 He defines this project as the apotheosis of his work: "e'est la conclusion narurelle de toute mon ocuvre: apres la longue constatation de la realite, une prolongation dans de main" (Baguley 77, 1973). Zola's apprehensions towards utopianism have not been altogether appeased, however, as he expresses concerns over the readability of a utopia: "'Une 'lcarie' est illisible. Et Ie reve de la fratemite universelie fait sourire" (Baguley 78, 1 973). Finally, following his customary fashion, Zola visited the familistere de Guise to observe life at a phalanstere. His notes have been preserved in the Departement des Manuscrits at the Richelieu site of the Bibliotheque Nationale (N. A. F. 1 0334, f. 387-394). In them, he describes some of the physical aspects of the familish:re-"le theatre et les ecoles," "les magasins de consommation"-and some of the rituals of its inhabitants-"Ia rete du travail," "une fete de I'enfance," "Ie dimanche matin, tous partent pour la pcche." Though some of Zola's judgements are quite positive-"grands commodites et aisance, surtout pour I'enfance," "Mortalite plus faible lit que dans 1a ville voisine"-his reservations towards utopia resurface nevertheless-"Maison de verre, on voit tout," "Pas de solitude, pas de liberte," "L'ouvrier est-il devenu meilleur et est-il parfaitement heureux ? Question it resoudre." This triple foundation-literary, ideological and experiential-helps to trace the outlines of Travail's utopian framework. Yet, Zola's novels cannot operate in a utopian mode as long as the explosion of an anarchist bomb foreshadows an apocalyptic revolution and entropy looms over the horizon of production. The text will resolve these tensions by erasing both, demonstrating the operative importance of these two clements for naturalist representations. Whereas in the naturalist passages, the bomb-thrower terrorist dominates, in the utopian mode, anarchy has been domesticated to become an imlOcuous force in society. This shift demonstrates what

14 The phalanstere was the cornerstone of Charles Fourier's theory. Writing at the beginning of the nineteenth century, this utopian socialist imagined a commune of workers living together in a Phalanx. For more on this topic, see Johnathan Beecher's Charles Fourier: rhe Visiollwy alld his World, especially Chapter 12, " The Idc:JI Community," pp. 241-258.

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we have been arguing all along: the naturalist paradigm depends upon a certain image of the anarchist as terrorist, stripping him away of all its positive potential for political change. These changes are centered on the character of Lange: in a similar transformation to that of Guillaume Froment's in Paris, the anarchist evolves from an apostle of violence to a poet advocating didactic alt. The excision of violence is accompanied once again by a refusal of the second law of thermodynamics and the advent of a fraternal community where class struggles disappear. Through contact with the electric ovens displayed at the World's Fair of 1 900, Zola was able to find a scientific solution to the entropic conundrum that had haunted his previous works. Moreover, a comparison between this Exposition Universelle which was taking place at the same time of Travail's composition and Luc's anarchic communelS reveals the limits of a utopian discourse and exposes its complicity with capitalist structures. Before delving into this particular chapter, however, I would like first to offer a brief summary of the novel since Travail has suffered from much neglect. Table 2

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 114. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=114

Chronology of the composition of Zola's

End of 1897

•

June 5th 1899

•

June 1899 to March 1900

• •

February I it_3 rt! 1900

•

Travail

Plan general of Les Ewmgiles, including Travail Return to Fmnce after Zola's exile In London Work on the £ballche of Travail Visit to Godin's familistere Visit 10 the Unicux factory

1 5 For the purposes of this chapter, I will use the loose translation of "anarchic commune" for what the novel refers 10 as the commune liberlaire." The text describes the lattcr in thc following way: "Aucune autorile n'existait plus, Ie nouvcau pacte social se fondail uniquemenl sur Ie lien du travail necessaire, accepte par tous, devenu la loi et Ic culte. [ . . . ] Ricn n'arrctait plus I 'expansion de chacun, Ie citoycn evoluait a son gre dans son devoir dc travaillcur, faisait partic d'autant de groupcs qu'il voulait, passait du travail de la terre au tmvail de I usi ne donnait ses heures au gre de ses facultes et de son desir. Et il n'y avait ainsi plus de lune de classes, puisqu'une c1asse unique existait, tuut un peuple d'artisans, egalement riches, egalement heureux, de mcme instruction, de mcme education, sans nulle differcnce ni dans Ie costtune, nl dans Ie logement, ni dans les mreurs" (954). "

'

,

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The Anarchic CommUlle As World's Fair March 1 5th 1900

•

April 1 4th 1 900

•

May and July 1 900

•

Zola becomes a frequent visitor to the World's Fair

July 7th 1900

•

Publication 1Il Le Temps of Max de Nansouty's article "A I'Exposition: Chez electra-chimistes" I"

August to October 1900

•

Zola goes to Medan

October 1900

•

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 115. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=115

•

November 1 2th 1 900

•

December 3 rt! 1900

•

February 6th 1901

•

April l l �l 1901

•

April 1 8th 1901

•

Zola begins to write the novel Travail Inauguration of the World's Fair in Paris

Zola returns to Paris The tirst book of the novel completed by this time

IS

almost

End of the World's Fair of 1900 Publication of Travail begins in I 'AI/rore Zola finishes writing Travail

Last installment of Travail appears in l'Aware

Publication of the Fasquelle edition

Travail is the second volume in the four part series of Les Quao-e Evangiles,16 The four novels are organized in concentric circles moving outwards: F{xondite founds the family, Travail builds the cite, Verite unites the nation, and Justice embraces humanity (Notice, Travail, p. 978). Travail itself is organized in a dialectical fashion, divided into three books of roughly equal length, each in turn sub divided into five sections. The first book depicts the plight of the proletariat and Luc's decision to lead the battle against the bourgeoisi.e by building an ideal society; the second book narrates the class

16 Originally, Zola's project was to mirror the strucrure of Les Trois Villes. He intended to write three novels-Fecolldile, Travail and Justice-with one main character, Jean, a member of the Froment family. He later enlarged the project 10 four novels, no doubt to emphasize Ihe parallel wilh Ihe four gospels. He Ihus added a fourth volume, Verite, between Travail and Jllslice, and adopted four different heroes for each novel, all descendants of Pierre and Marie Froment.

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conflict and the many obstacles that impede the foundation of the phalanstere; the last book describes the institutions of the new society and the many festivals that punctuate life in the commune, l 7 A s many critics have pointed out, Travail begins where Germinal had left Off,18 with the defeated workers of !'Abime, an arms factory, reluctantly resuming their work after a terrible strike against the patronat. The setting, however, is no longer the coal mines installed i n northern France, but rather the metallurgical industries based i n the Loire Valley, 19 The opening scenes of Travail are very similar to those of Germinal: the narrative technique of filtering the industrial landscape through the eyes of a newcomer is repeated in the figure of Luc Froment. Upon arriving in Beauclair, where the factory is located, Luc proceeds to record in a naturalist fashion the penury of the working classes. Zola insists on Luc's naturalist tendencies when he writes: "Que de fois, a Paris, sa passion de connaitre Ie peuple, de descendre au fond de toutes ses miseres et de toutes ses souffrances, I 'avait fait s'attarder des heures dans les pires bouges" (555). The descriptions of the industrial world are reminiscent of those i n Germinal, where the hues of black dominate, mixed i n with the soot, the smoke, and the mud that accentuate the misery of the landscape:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 116. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=116

[...] I'Abime etendait 1'amas sombre de ses batiments et de ses hangars [...] les chcminees fumaient, les cheminees de toutes tail\es, la foret qui melait son

17 Zola himself described the evolution of the novel in these terms: "II [Zola] prevait trois livres, selon un schema apparemment dialectique: Ie premier, 'peinture noire de ce qui cst'; Ie deuxicme, la 'Iulte,' lutte entre les classes et lutte intestine dans les families, 'effondrement de la societe qui meurt'; Ie troisicme, 'Ia partie utopique, la contrepartie du livre premier,' ou seront exposes la 'nouvelle organisation du travail' et 'tout un systcme d'education el d'instruction'" (OC, VIII, Notes for Travail, 979). 18 Although La Terre has been less cited as an intertext of Travail, it must be noted that the agriculnlral reforms proposed in the El1allgile erase the tensions found in that particular volume of Les ROlIgolI-Macqllart. Noiray has aptly noted: "Comme l'organisation de la Crccherie est la rcponse apportee par Zola it la question ouvricre qu'il avail abordce dans Germinal, la rCfonne des Combeltes et la mise en valeur des riches teITes agrieoles de la Roumagne esl la reponse que Zola donne it la question agraire qu' i l avail posee dans La Terre" (Noiray 22 1 , 1981). 19 Zola had visited the Unieux factory in the Loire valley 10 galher material for his novel: "Zola fil un voyage dans la Loire pour visiter les acieries el forges d'Unieux afin de prendre connaissance de I'administration, de I'organisation et des conditions dc travail dans la metallurgic" (Case 7). Sce also Josiane Naumont's article, "Enqucte sur line visite de Zola it Unieux pour la preparation de Travail. '" •

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souffle de suie a la suie volante des nuages. [ ...] Des bruits d'eau sonaient des tcncbres, la terre battue qui servait de sol, crevassee, bossuce, se dctrempait ici en boue fetide, n'etait a cote qu'une poussiere de charbon, un amas de detritus. C'etait partout la crasse du tnlvail sans soin, sans gaiete, Ie travail eX(:.cre et maudit, dans I'anlre empeste de fumees, souille de saletes volantes, noir, deJabre, immonde (540, 571-2).

The picture is accompanied, as in Paris, by the menace of impending doom: "Une mclancolie de dcsastre soumait avec Ie vent, on cut dit que ce crepuscule frissonnant et louche apportait la fin d'un monde" (540). The plight of the lower classes is crystallized in the character of Josine, a young worker who has been abandoned and thrown into the streets by her lover, Ragu. As the victim of a work accident, Josine becomes the symbo l of a defenseless, impotent proletariat in need of a Messiah to lead it into salvation. As Luc lays eyes upon the heap of rags and tatters, he inscribes her within a naruralist narrative: C'etait l'histoire banale et poignante de tant de pauvres filles. [ ... ] il revoyait surtout les pales filles errantes du troltoir, celte basse chair a plaisir des villes industrielles, ce goufTre dernier de la prostitution ou Ie chancre du salariat Jette les jolies ouvrieres des fabriques. N'etait-ce point Iii. que Josine allail? (564-566).

The first section of the first book ends with Josine's brother, Nanet, stealing some bread from Mme Mitaine's bakery and Lange, the anarchist character, approving Nanet's gesture and advocating a violent upheaval: "[ J il n'y a pas deux moyens, il n'y en a qu'un, flanquer d'un coup I'edifice par terre, detruire partout I'autorite a coups de hache, pour que Ie peuple, it qui tout appartient, puisse tout reconstruire" (561). Luc has been invited to Beauclair by his friend Jordan and his sister, Sreurette. The descendents of an aristocratic family that joined the bourgeois speculation in the early years of the industrial re volution, they inherit a smelting furnace and the estate of la Crecherie, a large property seemingly barren of good raw materials to produce steel. After the death of his head engineer, Jordan calls upon Luc's expertise to advise him: "[... ] Ie maitre de la Crecherie [Jordan], ctait dans un grand embarras, depuis la mort subite du vieil ingenieur qui dirigeait son haut fourneau; et il avait ecrit a Luc, I 'appelant, pour qu'il examinat les choses et qu'il lui donnat un bon conseil" (547). Jordan is presented as a scientist reminiscent of Bertheroy in Paris

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...

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and Pascal in Le Doc/ellr Pascal, an advocate of the "quietisme scientifique" that so repulsed Jaures in Zola's works. 20 Jordan announces to Luc his intention of selling the furnace, along with the adjacent land, to Delaveau, the chief engineer of l' Abime: "[ ... J Ie mieux est done que je vende. [ ...J Ce n'est pas d'hier que Delaveau reve de joindre Ie haut Fourneau de la Cn!cherie a ses acieries de l 'Abime" (637). As in Germinal and Paris, where Zola uses a strategy of contrast to dissect social inequalities, Luc moves from the penury of the workers to the riches of the upper classes. He is invited to Ia Guerdache, the Qurignon estate inhabited by Suzanne and her husband Boisgelin, the current proprietors of the Abime. Along with Dclaveau and his wife, Femande, they represent the haute bourgeoisie, fulfilling the same role in the plot as the Hennebeaus in Germinal and the Duvillards in Paris. To the desolate and dark descriptions of I' Abime, Zola opposes the luminous and transparent gaiety of La Guerdache: "Luc fut ravi de la gaiete claire, du grand luxe aimable de la salle a manger [... J la piece, de style Louis XVI, avec ses boiseries gris perle, ses tentures d'un vert d'eau tres doux, devenait la salle des festins revee, dans une ideale feerie champetre" (61 0). During this dinner, Luc becomes conscious of the class conflict that divides French society: "Que de misere injuste, et de quel travail maudit, de quelle execrable souffrance ctait fait Ie luxe des oisifs et des heureux" (610). From theory to praxis, Luc's new-found social consciousness translates into action thanks to two converging elements. On the one hand, after reading Solidarite, a treatise on Fourier's thought, he is enlightened in a quasi-religious experience that shows him the path to follow: [...] a chaque page du petit livre, cclatait la splendeur de cc mot de Solidaritc, qui en eait t Ie titre. Des phrases luisaient comme des phares [ ... ]. Le travail devait etre une Jete [. . .]. Doucement, Luc posa Ie petit livre, souffia la lumiere. II avait lu, i l ctait calme, il sentait renaitre Ie sommeil paisible ct reparateur [... ]. La scmence etaitjetec, la moisson levcrait (655-6).

On the other hand, Luc's nascent love for Josine convinces him to construct his ideal society to rescue her from falling into prostitution: "C'etait en elle qu'il airnait Ie peuple souffrant [... J elle incamait toute

20 See Alfred Roberts's dissertation, 20/a alld Fourier, p. 5 1 .

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la race des victimes [.. .]. Lorsqu'il l'aurait rachetee, il rachderait avec elle toute la race. Et, dclicieusement, elle ctait aussi I'amour, l'amour necessaire a I'harmonie, au bonheur de la Cite future" (677).21 The only piece missing, of course, is the land upon which to build his phalanstcre. In an over-contrived plot line, the reader guesses that Jordan will cede his territory to Luc so that he can conduct his experiment: "Prenez-Ies done, je prefere les donner a vous, qui croyez pouvoir en faire un bon usage" (675). The following book narrates Luc's struggles to build his phalanstere, from the opposition from the bourgeoisie which culminates in a trial against the "'messiah" for diverting the flow of a stream, to an eventual assassination attempt by Ragu, jealous of Luc�s sexual relations with Josine. Within the ranks of the proletariat, both Bonnaire and Lange provide dissenting voices to Luc's projects, the former by embracing a collectivist position reminiscent of Marxism and the latter by advocating anarchism and violent revolution. Parallel to the struggles of la Crccherie, Zola documents the withering away of bourgeois society, corroded by the hypocritical adulterous liaisons between Femande, whose unappeasable luxurious appetite preys upon the work of the proletariat,22 and Boisgelin, the owner of I' Abime. The class conflict is displaced into sexual violence as Ragu rapes Femande when she informs her of Josine's sexual liaison with Luc. He then tries to kill Luc and leaves Beauclair; the inhabitants of the city proclaim the worker dead upon finding an unidentifiable corpse nearby. The second book closes with a catastrophe: Femande con fesses her adulterous liaison with Boisgelin to her husband, Delaveau,

21 Luc's and Josine's amorous relationship gets complicated once Ragu decides to marry her: "[ ...) ce[ui-ci [Ragu] avait fini par ['epouser, [...] E[[e n'avail mcme accepte qu'apres avoir consulte Luc, qui restail son dieu, [e sauveur, [e maitre. [...] N'etait-ce pas [a solution [a meilleure, la seule possible? Elle ne pouvait epouser que Ragu, puisque eelui-ei voulait bien" (70[). 22 Zola describes her in the following manner: "En clle, dans ce corps si fin, d'un charme dClicat, sous cetle gcice legere, il y avait une aprete de louve, aux furieux instincts de carnage. Elle etait resolue a ne ricn ceder sur ses appetits, a se rassasier de son plaisir jusqu'au bOUI, sans laisser les autres [e lui prendre ou simplcment Ie compromcttrc. Cettc usinc boueuse et noire, ou, nui! el jour, elle entendait les monslrueux marleaux lui forger son plaisir, e1le en avail Ie mepris, comme d'une office basse, dans laquelle se cachait les saletes de la vie; ces ouvriers qui se cuisaient la peau aux nammes de eel enfer, pour 4u'elle cut une existence de fraiche ct heurcusc paresse, elle les considerail un peu comme les animaux domestiques qui la nourrissaienl, qui lui evitaient toute fatigue" (768).

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who then sets fire to the factory, leading to their death and the destruction of I' Abime. The final book depicts life in the now triumphant utopian community. Rather than a traditional narrative, the book is divided into a series of tableaux describing the various institutions of the new society, including its educational system, its factories, its quasi-state stores and the many festivals that punctuate life in the phalanstere. Marriages hold a central position in the community as they bring together members of different classes, thus erasing social distinctions: "[ ... J 13 jeunesse tleurissait partout, des alliances encore se conclurent, des couples que des mondes semblaient separer se mirent en marche pour 1a Cite future, rapproch6s par 1'6temel d6sir" (867). Fecundity becomes one of the fundamental values in the community, as the many couples multiply, including Luc and Josine, perpetuating their family through various generations.B The utopia reaches its apex when Jordan captures solar energy and proclaims the death of the thermodynamic model, the reversal of entropy and the achievement of perpetual motion: "[ . . . ] ce jour arriva, il avait trouve Ie moyen d'eviter toute perte, de rendre les reservoirs impermeables, capables de garder longtemps les provisions de force electrique. [ ... J Le reve d'allurner, l a nuit, un autre soleil, au-dessus de Beauclair, allait etre realise, surement" (946, 950). The novel closes with a series of news coming from outside the phalanstere, revealing that the world had experienced a series of wars and revolutions that uncanningly foreshadow the World Wars that shook the twentieth century as well as the Russian Revolution.24 The usual catastrophic ending that characterizes 201a's

23 A long litany of marriages and genealogical trees are delineated throughout the book. So intricate are these family relations that Zola himself loses track and makes mistakes at several instances. The reader feels like Ragu, who, upon coming back to Beauclair after a prolonged absence, does not understand all thc gencrations that have sprung-up: "[ . . ] lorsque Bonnaire voulut expliquer ces filiations it Ragu, celui-ci eut Ie geste d'un homme dont la tete se perd, au milieu d'une telle complication des alliances" (926). 24 Suzanne, Boisgelin's wife, declares: "[ ... ] la dernicre guerre, la derniere bataille! [ ... J Pas une nalion n'avail pu rester a 1'ecall, cI[es s'etaient entrainces [es unes les autres, deux armces immenses entraient en ligne, toutes brO[antes des fureurs anceslra[es, resolues a s'ecraser [ ...] les deux annees immenses de freres ennemis se rencontrerent au centre de l'Europe, en de vaste p[eines, ou des millions d'etrcs pouvaienl s'egorger" (968). Josine relates the events of a collectivist revolution, which the modem reader immediately associates with the Russian revolution; Zo[a, however, had the United States in mind when he writes: "Dans une grande .

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narratives is thus relegated to the margins of the novel, outside of the utopian community which rests unscathed by such events. This pessimistic tableau is countered by the very last sentences of the novel, which replace Luc's death in a continuous cycle of life: "[ ... J c'ctait [ ... J 1a fedcration prochaine des peuples, I'unique peupJe fratemel, I'humanitc remplissant enfin sa destinee de verite, de justice et de paix. [ ... J Luc expira, entra dans Ie torrent d'universel amour, d'etemelle vie" (969)." Ideological Welding: Fourier and Anarchism

As stated above, critics have proposed a wide array of inter pretations concerning Travail's ideological underpinnings; a super ficial reading of the novel, however, would reveal that Zola wanted to advance Fourier's doctrine in his work. In his first Ebauche to the project of Les Quav·e Evangiles, Zola writes: '''' Travail' est I'ceuvre que je voulais faire avec Fourier, I'organisation du travail, Ie travail pere et regulateur du monde" (505). Though the idea of a Fourierist phalanstere appears already in Les ROllgoll-Macqllart, notably in SOil

Republiquc, Ics collcctivistcs som dcvcnus Ics maitrcs du pouvoir. [ . ] 11 n'y a plus eu ni proprietaires, ni capitalistes, ni patrons, l'Etat seul a regne, maitre de tout, a la fois propri6taire, capitaliste et patron, regulateur et distributeur de la vie sociale" (965, see also footnote #71 in the edition of Le Circle du Livre Precieux). Sreurettc, in tum, speaks of an anarchic revolution, the one that Zola imagined would take place in the Russian Empire: "Cest dans un vaste Empire voisin, les anarchistes ont fini par faire saUier la vieille charpentc socialc, it coups de bombes ct de mitraillc" (966). 25 This brief summary of the novel cannot do justice to the intricacies of the plot and to the vast array of scrondary characters that people its pagcs. A whole set of stock characters are destined to represcnt the administration of Beauclair, including the mayor Gourier, the judge Gaume, the sous-prefet Ch
Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 121. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=121

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 122. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=122

Excellence Eugene Rougon and in Au Bonheur des Dames,26 the utopian thinker is not named explicitly in Zola's works until the writing of Paris.27 A srudy of the role of Fourier in Travail, however, would indicate that Zola has performed ideological acrobatics to transform the socialist thinker into an evolutionary anarchist. In the preparatory notes for Travail, Zola reiterates his aversion to anarchist violence: "Luc se decide [d'adoptcr les idees de Fourier] pour des raisons qu'il faut dire. Pas de revolution, evolution par Fourier. Cela para!t plus scientifique" (28). Case has pointed out convincingly that this choice was dictated so as to excise the violent impulses from the anarchist ideas incorporated into Luc's commune: "L'intention semble etre d'amortir Ie coup d'une transformation trop rapide de la societe" (Case 29). He identifies this fear of violent revolution as a characteristically bourgeois reaction: "La crainte d'une revolution violente est une crainte de c1asse" (26). In other words, the exorcism of violence that so haunted Zola is translated by a distortion of Fourier's thought to fit the symbolic needs of the novel's utopian message where class struggle is sublimated into a bourgeois ideal. While preparing the last volume of Les Trois Villes, Zola had consulted the article on Fourier found in Larousse's Grand dictiol1llaire universel du XIXe siecle (Ternois 644).28 When turning to Travail, he supplements this cursory knowledge by reading Renaud's

26

See Alfred D. Roberts's dissertation, Zola (1m/ Fourier, pp. 29-30. Also, Noiray, pp. 184-88 (1981). 27 After having published an article in the Figaro of May 1896 entitled "Depopulation" and which touchcd upon thc natalist "crisis" of thc fin de siccle, lola was contacted by Noirot, a disciple of Fourier. They met in October of 1896 to discuss the utopi an socialist's theses, and its impact on lola may be gauged by the appearance of Fourier in the ideological debates presented in Paris. See Robert H. McCormick's "Fourier, Ie vrai Messie du Paris de Zola." 28 As the reader recalls, Bache serves as the mouthpiece 10 Fourier's theories in Paris: "[ ...] lorsqu'il [Bache] en venait a Fourier, sa voix s'attendrissail, il disail toute sa religion. Celui-ci etait Ie vrai Messie attendu des temps modemes, Ie Sauveur dont Ie genie avait jete [a bonne semence du monde futur, en reglementant la societe de demain, telle qu'elle s'ctablirait certainement. La loi d'harmonie ctait promulguee, les passions libCrces cnfin et sainement utilisees en allaient eIre les rouages, [e travail rendu altrayant devenait la fonction meme de la vie. Rien ne Ie dccourageait: qu'unc commune commen<;iit a sc tnmsfonner en phalanstere, Ie departcmcnl cntier suivmit bien tot, puis les deparlements voisins, puis la Fmnce" (Paris 1 3 1 5). A compar son with the vocabulary used in Travail reveals how little Zola's conception of Fourier has changed from one novel 10 the next. i

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Solidarite,29 the treatise on Fourier's thought that incites Luc to take action. Despite this documentation, Zola only sketches a vague outline of Fourier's thought in the novel. In encyclopedic fashion, he exposes two main tenets of the utopian thinker's complicated system. On the one hand, Luc is struck by the idea of replacing labor at the basis of all social life through the founding of a phalanstere: "II suffisait de reorganiser Ie travail, pour reorganiser la societe toute entiere" (654). On the other hand, Luc gives free rein to all human passions in the hopes of achieving universal harmony: "Les instincts, refoules, ecrases jusqu'ici, ainsi que des betes mauvaises, ne seraient plus , liberes entin, que les besoins de I'universelle attraction tendant it I 'unite, travaillant panni les obstacles it se fondre dans I'harmonie finale, expression definitive de l'universel bonheur" (654). The novel ends with a salute to Fourier's genius, as Luc evaluates the phalanstere that he has founded. He concludes: "[ . . . J la premiere Cite ouvriere [ . . . J [etait nee] de I'idee fourieriste, ensommeillee comme la bonne graine dans les champs d'hiver, toujours prete a germer et a fleurir" (953). There is no doubt, then, that Zola intended to give the last word to Fourier. It must be noted, however, that Fourier's ideas are superimposed on the plot of the novel and are not successfully integrated into the narrative. Rather than a scientific or logical decision, Luc embraces Fourier after a quasi-religious experience: "Le petit livre avait vecu, aux mains d'un ap6tre et d'un heros, la mission serait maintenant remplie, it l'heure marquee par I'evolution" (656). In a similar fashion, the phalanstere emerges magically as Luc's voice suffices to build it: "Des lors, Luc, Ie constructeur, Ie fondateur de la ville, voulut, agit, et les hommes et les pierres se leverent it sa voix. On vit l'apotre dans sa mission, dans sa force, dans sa gaiete" (758). Furthermore, Luc simplifies Fourier's thought by condensing it into a slogan:

29 Whether he read Fourier's texts directly is unclear. During his exile in England, he told Jean Jaures that he had been studying the different social schools that spanned the nineteenth-century: "Pour moi, je lis, je cherche, non pas pour imaginer un systeme nouveau apres tant de systemes, mais pour degager des ccuvres socialistes ee qui s'aeeorde mieux avec mon sens de la vic, avec man amour de I'activit.:, de la sante, d e I'abondance et de la joie" (Case 6). Jaures claims that Fourier was among these thinkers: "Selon Jaures, ce semit au eours de son exil que Zola avait lu Fourier" (Case 6). Case also points out that, even though Renaud's book conains t 291 pages, Zola seems to have taken notes on only the first 106 (Case 29).

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"I'association entre Ie capital, Ie travail ct I'intelligence." This floating motto punctuates the text periodically, pasted unto the text as a political banner. Fourier's ideas are thus presented as religious dogma that can be simplified into pithy slogans. These two facets of the novel arc easily discerned aftcr Ragu's failed assassination attempt. Luc comes out of his convalescence as Savior and the parallels with Jesus Christ arc patent: "Lc sang de l'apotrc avait cOllie, et c'etait l e calvaire, 1a passion d'ou allait sortir Ie triomphe" (785). Shortly after the completion of this pseudo-sacrifice, the phalanstt':re attains success: "[ ... J ce qui determina 1a prosperite, Ie triomphe de 13 Crecherie, ce furent les raisons nature lIes [... J. Elle portait en elle son succes, du premier jour OU elle avait ete creee sur Ie systeme transitoire d'une sage association entre Ie capital, Ie travail et I'intelligence" (789). The glossing over of logical constructions is achieved through a displacement into natural causes-"ce furent les raisons naturelles"-that inevitably lead to the oversimplified motto that serves as a catch-phrase for Fourier's system: "une sage association entre Ie capital, Ie travail et I'intelligence." Paradoxically. Luc's mysticism is reminiscent of Souvarine's posturing in Germinal and of Zola's characterization of the anarchists in his article "La Republique en Russie." Still, the narrator adds a note of surprise when indicating the eventual adherence of the anarchists to the commune: "[ ... J la Cite nouvelle devait-elle [... J faire en chemin 1a conquete [ ... J des socialistes de sectes ennemies [. .. ] les anarchistes eux-memes" (953, emphasis added), The slight hesitation on the part of the narrator indicates a deeper ideological mistrust of the anarchist than of the collectivist. Yet, as many critics have pointed out,30 Zola

30 [ will not detail here the meticulous work of both Case and Speirs which catalogues lola's debt to Kropotkin and Grave. As Case points out convincingly: "[ ...] il semble que lola est [sic] vite convaincu des lacunes de la theorie de Fourier meme quand il s 'agit d'inclure un pcu de philosophie sociale erudite dans son roman, et souvent i[ est tres difficile de distinguer entre les idees de Fourier et celles des anarchistes Grave et Kropotkinc. [ ... ] souvcnl, 20la depend entieremcnt dc Kropotkine cl dc Grave pour reIever res faiblesses du fourierisme ct pour preconiser certaines refonnes qui semblent erre basces sur la lecture de Fourier mais qui sont invariab1cment prises directement des livres des deux anarchistes" (30-3 1). He goes on to show with great deta il how lola takes certain ideas from the anarchist thinkers, transforms them in the novel and even attributes them to Fourier (28-50). Furthermore, he asserts: "Sauf quand il parle de l'association du capital, du travail, ct du talent ainsi que till progr�s par ['evolution plutot que par la revolution, tout ee que dit Lue sur la Cite future est base sur 1a lecture qu'a faite lola des penseurs anarchistes, ou bien est commun a

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relics much more heavily on the anarchists' works that he consulted when preparing the political aspects of Travail. Indeed, ideas drawn from Kropotkin's La Conquete du pain and two of Grave's political tracts, La Sochfte future and L 'A narchie, son but el ses moyens, serve as the ideological core of the phalanstere's instihttions,31 So impressed was Zola with Kropotkin's treatise, for example, that he takes him as model for Luc Froment: "Faire de mon Luc, ce chercheur [Kropot kine] de genie, ce libre penseur, ce rebelle de volonte ferme" (Sargent 1 7). And upon reading Jean Grave, the pope of la Rue Mouffetard, he writes: "L'intensite de la vie dans la commune anarchique, C'est cela que je dois peindre. Le bonheur de I'individu au milieu du bonheur general" (Sargent 19). At other points in the preparatory dossier, Zola recognizes that his ultimate goal in the novel is to build an anarchic commune: "[ ... ] ;l plusieurs reprises I'auteur declare son intention finale dans Travail: <Mais arriver ;l la cite anarchique' (notes sur l 'Anarchie); 'Aboutir au communisme anarchique' (notes sur Kropot kine)" (Case 37). Criticizing the collectivist position, Zola writes i n his notes: "On semble marcher vers Ie nivellement des conditions et des intelligences, mais ce n'est pas ce que je veux. [ ... ] Le reve du collectivisme, non! Un reve d'anarchie epuree, plutot" (OC VIII, 983). Indeed, Luc's phalanstere achieves a Proudhon-Iike state-less society where individuals are free to enter into contractual relations with each other: "Longtemps encore, Ie salariat avait done agonise, ;l l'usine de la Crecherie. [ ... ] seule la commune libertaire I'avait detruit. [ .. ] Aucune autorite n'existait plus. [ ... ] Rien n'arretait plus I'expansion de chacun, Ie citoyen evoluait a son gre dans son devoir de travailleur" (955). Though Zola was reticent to describe the commune in anarchic ways, this quote illustrates that the utopian horizon is defined through the anarchic dream of an absence of authority. Jordan

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Fourier et aux eerivains anarehistes" (34). Speirs, in a similar vein, claims that "A mesure qu'on examine Ie developpcment du roman [Travail), on se rend compte que, si Zola se sert des institutions fantaisistes de Fourier comme grille, la philosophic socio-politique qu'il promulgue dans Ie roman vicnt en grande partie du cote des penseurs anarchistes de I'epoque et de leurs systemes anti etatiques par excellence; malgre l'inf1uence pretendu grande du fourierisme dans Travail, c'est dans l'anarchisme que Zola puise les structures de sa societe utopique" (Speirs 75). 31 Speirs notes in her dissertation: "[ ] les soucis proselytiques de Zola vieillissant l'orientait de plus en plus vcrs un gommage ideologique grace auquel il passe, dans Travail, sans difficulte apparcnte, d'une organisation fouricriste a llne commune anarchiste" ( 175). -

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points this out when he tells Luc: ""[.. ] I'application de la formule de Fourier n'est pas la mort du sa lariat. Mernc avec les collectivistes, lc salafiat ne change guere que de nom. !I faudrait aller jusqu 'au nive absolu de / 'anarchie pour Ie detruire'" (67 1 , emphasis added). And even though Luc never accepts the epithet "'anarchist," he must concede Jordan's point: "Luc dut en convenir" (671). Fourier's highly systematized organization of life in the phalanstere does not complement the anarchic dream of a state-less society where the ultimate arbiter is the individua1.32 To weld these two branches of socialist thought successfully, Zol3 operates certain ideological shifts that mask the anarchic basis of the community.33 He thus tries to harmonize these two systems of thought, as when Luc finds traces of Fourier in Lange's theories. The anarchist character recites his credo, predicting the end of all authority and the founding of an anarchic commune where individuals would be free to enter into contractual relations with each other: "[ ... ] la commune libre pourrait s'etablir, en dehors de tout gouvernement, grace a I'entente des groupes sans cesse varies, continuellement modifies, seion les besoins et Ies desirs de chacun" (664). Upon hearing this, Luc immediately replaces it within Fourier's theories: "Luc fut frappe de retrouver la les series de Fourier. [... ] I'anarchiste n 'etait qu'un fourieriste, qu'un

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 126. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=126

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32 Case has rightly pointed out this incompatibility: "II est impensable que Zola soit sincere quand il declare sa foi dans cene identite de buts [of Fourier and the anarchists]. Apres sa lecture de Renaud et son etude des anarehistes, comment peut-il reconcilier lcs stnJctures hicrarchiques et autoritaircs des series [dc Fourier] et l'enticre libertc sans chef aueun de la commune anarchiste" (Case 35)? The tension between individual freedom and communal duty exists already in Fourier's system, as he proposes a complete liberation of passions, or instincts, only to canalize them into a highly regimented code. This results into what Meakin describes as "The paradox in Fourier's utopia" meaning "work as libidinal activity, but mathematically regulated" ( 1 02). In this vein, Michael Croft has suggested that "Zola's task in Travail is to show how anarchist individualism can be incorporated into a Fourierist collective" (9). 33 As Speirs has noted, Zola transforms Grave's thought to hannonize it with Fouricr's belicfs in a peaceful revolution: "lola poursuit son gommage doctrinal, chercham-et trouvam-dans l'ccuvre d'un ccrivain essentiellement partisan de la revolution violente [Jean Grave] les modeles d'une evolution pacifique et sc ientifique 'lis [les anarchistes] se reclament de ['evolution,' dit Zola dans ses notes, vraisemblablement forI content, ct i l continue, mellant ainsi encore un elemenl de son collage idcologique en place, 'ils veulent etre scientifique. C'est ee qu'il me faudrait: l'anarchie scientifique'" ( 197-98). .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 127. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=127

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collectiviste desabuse, exaspere [.,,]" (664).34 Yet, Lange's description veers towards the Proudhonian model rather than the Fourierist one. At the end of the book, Luc concludes: "'Toute la commune libertaire ctait en germe dans Fourier" (954). The word "libertaire" is used here so as to avoid the word "'anarchique," thus constituting a false ideological distance from anarchism.35 In other instances, the anarchist ideal is evacuated by avoiding labels all together. When Jordan insists that Luc's ideal has anarchic overtones, "'vous etes bel et bien un anarchiste,'" Luc refuses the label, "'Commenl;ons toujours, nous verrons bien OU la logique nous menera'" (675). Similarly, Bonnaire claims that the ideological framework of the phalanstere cannot be labeled anarchic. When he explains to Ragu that a bartering system among artisans stands as the ultimate horizon of economic exchange within the commune, Ragu rightly recognizes the anarchist ideal. When he voices this opinion, however, Bonnaire dismisses the label, claiming that such vocabulary is meaningless in the ideal society of l a Crechcrie: "'La verite est que nous ne sommes plus rien du tout, depuis Ie jour au Ie reve commun de bonheur, de verite et de justice s'esl realise'" (929, emphasis added). From these examples, we can conclude that Zola operates an insidious welding of Fourierist and anarchist ideals to erase any trace of the latter from his novel. To readers of Paris, this ideological confounding is not surprising: Guillaume's transfomlation from terrorist bomb-thrower to peaceful advocate of a libertarian commune parallels the neutralization of anarchist violence through an inter-

34

The contractual society envisioned by Proudhon is incompatible with the organization of work as Fourier intended it. For the latter, the distribution of labor within the social was to follow the same rigid structures of his passionate series. Proudhon rejected such constraints imposed on the freedom of individuals. For those interested in these matters, I direct my readers to Beecher's Charles Fourier: The Visiol1(l1Y (Jnd his World, especially the second section which deals with Fourier's theory. Sec, for example, chapter 14, pp. 278-284 where the passionate series are treated. On Proudhon's relationship to Fourier, see pages 293 and 394. 35 A similar process of distancing anarchist ideology from Fourier can be discerned in Ihe example given above, in which Luc admits thai the libertarian ideal was Ihe only me
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mingling with Fourier's theories,36 In fact, Guillaume's dream of a libertarian commune is concretized in Travail through Luc's ideal society. Guillaume confides to his brother Pierre his faith in the anarchic ideal: "[... ] il avail fini par mettre loute sa foi dans Ie communisme libertaire, cette anarchic ou it rcvait J'individu d6iivre, evoluant, s\�panouissant, sans contrainte aucune" (Paris 1 3 1 7). By the end of that novel, all the major themes of Travail arc introduced, making it clear that the second Evangile is a logical continuation of Paris. The slippage from the libertarian commune to Fourier's pha lanstere is outlined in the following passage: "Qu'on donne done des siecles a cette religion de 1a science, dont la sourde poussee s'annonce de toutes parts, et I' on verra se constituer en un nouvel evangile les admirables idees d'un Fourier" (Paris 1 562). The fear of violent revolution advocated by the anarchist remains at the core of such ideological revisions. When confronted with Jordan's accusation of having anarchic tendencies, Luc feels obliged to explain his choice; almost apologetically, he defends Fourier: "Pourquoi [ ... J s'arrctait-il a la fonnule de Fourier? C 'etait peut-etre qu 'iI repugnait personnel lement aux violences revolutionnaires" (672, emphasis added).J7 The anarchic sub-text in Travail is thus effaced to privilege the more pacifist tendencies of Fourier.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 128. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=128

Revolutionary Rape as Entropic Heat Death

Zola's hesitations on the subject of anarchy have repercussions on the only anarchist character in the novel. Lange, as his name suggests,

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Thc rcpctition of thcmcs that unitcs Paris and Travail SCIVCS to illustratc thc importance of the former novel in the chain that links Germinal to the Ewmgiles. Neither a continuation of Germinal not ils antithesis, Travail is rather a re-writing of Germinal refracted through the ideological prism of Paris. Le Doc/eur Pascal completes this particular genealogy. As Speirs has aptly noted, "La rehabilitation du desir comme force positive elait une idee fondamentale de Fourier, mais Zola I'avait deja exprimee par la voix du Doeteur Pascal, dont Ie projet elait d'arrivcr a la eite fmure de I'universel bonheur par Ie juste emploi de ['etre elltier" (Speirs 37-8). The difference lies, however, in Jordan's reali7.ation of his work as revolutionary, an adjective that Pascal would have rej(,'Cted. 37 This is almost verbatim what Zola had already wrinen in his preparatory notes to Les Trois villes, which announce many of the themes and stylistic changes of Les Quufres Evul/giles: "'[. .J s i l y avait moyen, une religion nouvelle... Le socialisme est un reve ... Chanter I'hymne a l'aurore.. Le socialisme triomphant. Une religion humaine, a trouver... Ne pas trap m'asservir a la realite. Du reve'" (Temois 292). .

'

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can be construed as a positive force who advocates the constructive aspects of the "gentler, kinder" strain of the anarchist ideology that Zola incorporates into his utopian dream. An artisan potter, Lange has installed his "camp site" on the fringes of Beauclair, in a barren parcel of land bequeathed to him by Jordan where he lives in freedom with his companion, la Nu-Pieds. His lifestyle, as Case has rightly pointed out, can be posited as the end-goal of any individual within Luc�s Commune.38 When talking to Jordan and Luc, he boasts: Je vis libre ici, c'est prcsquc I'anarchic realisce_ VOliS [Jordan] m'avez laissc prendre ce petit coin de terre, de la terre qui est a nous tous; et je suis mon maitre, je ne paie done de loyer a personne. Ensuite, je travaille a ma guise, je n'ai ni patron qui m'ecrase, ni ouvrier que j'ccrase, je vends moi-meme mes marmites et mes cruches aux braves gens qui en ont besoin, sans etre vole par les eommen;:ants, ni leur permettre de voler les acheteurs. [ ...] nous [Lange et la Nu Pieds] ne nous plaignons pas, nous sommes heureux de vivre quand Ie solei I nous met en fCte (666).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 129. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=129

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Lange's discourse contains the elements necessary to build the utopian commune, including the independence of the individual and the artisan economic system that will be advocated throughout Travail. The fact that Lange enounces these ideals demonstrates the importance of anarchist tenets in Luc's overall scheme. Lange's claims to happiness notwithstanding, his idealized image is tempered throughout by his terrorist discourse that advocates an uncompromising destruction of all social institutions.39 Indeed, throughout the first part of the novel, and up to the fire that destroys l 'Abime, Lange is presented as a terrorist who advocates a violent revolution. Lange makes his first appearance in the novel at the very moment that Nanet steals some bread from Mme Mitaine. From the onset, he sides with Nanet, inciting the workers to pillage the stores to recuperate what rightly belongs to them: "[ ...J c'est done les momes de six ans qui doivent aujourd'hui nous donner l 'exemple? II a eu raison, 38

Case points out the parallel between Lange's lifestyl e and Luc's utopian dream: "Lange, qui habite 'son trou sauvage,' Qtl' il fabrique des poteries de tres haute qualitc, vit deja la poesie de son independance anarchiste et ne subit aucune des influences de I'organisation qui existe a cote de sa demeure. II symbolise a un certain point Ie resultal final de ce mouvement enlame par Luc, qui vise, Ihcoriquement du mains, a l'independance de l'individu" (Case 38). 39 His relationship to La Nu-Picds, his companion, is equally cast in a negative light; she is described as his "slave": "[ ...] il vit avec celie ftlle, qui est a la rois son esclave et sa femme. [ ...] l a Nu-Pieds est son manccuvre" (662-3).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 130. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=130

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eet enfant. Quand on a faim, on peut tout prendre. Qui, tout ce qui est dans les boutiques est a nous, ct c'est parce que vellS ctcs des laches que vellS crevez de faim!" (56 1 ). He then goes on to recite his destructive credo: "II n'y a pas deux moyens, il n'y en a qu'un, £languer d'lln coup I'edifice par terre, detruire partellt !'autorite it coups de hache, pour que Ie peuple, it qui tout appartient, puisse tout reconstruire entin!" (561 ). He unveils his anarchist plot of bombing the administrative structures of Beauc1air when he states to Luc and Jordan: "[ ... ] il Y a une bornbe cachee dans chaque marmite, nous en deposons une a la sous-prefecture, une autre a 1a mairie, une autre au tribunal, une autre a 1a prison, une autre it I'eglise, enfin partout ou se trouve une autorite it detruire" (666). Lange's vocabulary resembles that used by the other anarchists i n Zola's repertoire, and he i s described in tenns that recall his literary predecessors. In fact, Zola had in mind both Souvarine and Guillaume when drawing up the character of Lange: «Dans L' Ebauche [de Travail] Zola ecrit: 'II faut que je reprenne mon Guillaume Froment, mon Souvarine, [sic] Ce demier surtout. Et un grand type a creer. Puisque tout craque, que I'edifice social pourri va s'ecrouler, i l faut bien que j'aie un prophete pessimiste qui dise cela'" (Case 36_7).40 As Souvarine, he is depicted as a poet: «[ . ..J sous I'enveloppe mal degrossi [...] il [Luc] fut surpris de sentir [... ] un simple poete rustique" (663). As Guillaume, he uses the image of a volcano to represent the final cataclysm that will bring about the demise of the ruling class: "Les meches brulent, tout <;a couve Ie temps necessaire. Puis, tout d'un coup, Beauclair saute, une effroyable eruption de volcan Ie brule et l'emporte" (666). Echoing Guillaume's arguments, which excused social violence by appealing to natural causes, the narrator reports Lange as stating: "La catastrophe, Ie volcan etait dans la nature" (664). Lange is thus circumscribed by a whole array of literary antecedents that locate him within the tradition of Zola�s works. Rather than a faithful depiction of reality, Lange has become an example of a topos that draws heavily on a specific image of the 40 As attested to by his preparatory notes to the novel, lola was particularly interested in this character, thus revealing his importance in the economy of the plot. Speirs asserts: "[ ...] c'est sur Ie personnage de I'anarchiste que lola s'arrcte-et longuement [ .. .]" ( 1 56). Croft notes thaI Zola originally intended the pOller to be an artistic glass maker (Croft 10). The shift from glass to mud as raw materials has obvious symbolic resonance given Luc's ultimate dream of a tmnsparcnt society.

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anarchist concocted by literary and journalistic practices. Thus, just as in Germinal and Paris, Zola is less interested in representing the complexities of anarchism than in exploiting a stereotype of the anarchist as terrorist for narrative purposes. The dream of total destruction advanced by Lange traces a limit to Luc's political engagement, effectively maintaining the latter in check. Lange's terrorist discourse thus plays a similar role to that of the mutilated proletariat after Sal vat's bombing in Paris. As White has pointed out: "The violence of the anarchist bomb thrown by Salvat at the hotel Duvillard produces the haunting image of the blond girl 's corpse that Pierre will continually encounter as a check to his flirtation with active radicalism and the ethics of la propagande par Ie fait' (203). In a similar fashion, Lange1s words produce a deep impression upon Luc, who is haunted by this cataclysmic prophecy throughout the novel. As a possible denouement to the political struggle, the violent destruction of authority remains a possible outcome to Luc's narrative:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 131. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=131

C'ctait a celte supreme souffrance, a ce sacrifice humain de la triste enfant [Josine], que toute sa soiree aboutissait, les dcsastres de la greve, les creurs et les cerveaux empoisonnes de haine, les duretes ego'isles dll negoce, I'alcool devenu I'oubli neccssaire, Ie vol legitime par la faim, toute la vieillc societe craquant sous I'amas de ses iniquites. Et il [Luc] entendait encore fa voi)." de Lange prophetisant la catastrophe finale qui emporterait ce Beauclair pourri et pourrisseur (566, emphasis added).

At the end of the second section of Book 1, Luc once again has a vision of Lange: "[ ... J ce fut un autre souvenir de la soin�e, Ie profit perdu de Lange, Ie potier, jetant sa malediction avec la vehemence d'un prophete, annonyant la destruction de Beauclair, sous I'amas de ses crimes" (595). The terrorism of Lange, thus disseminated through out the narrative, stands at the limit of Luc's political refonn as a reminder of what he wants to avoid: a violent denouement to the class struggle. Typically, the bourgeois and store owners of Beauclair use the word anarchy to describe any reform that threatens their class power.41

41 There is yet one more way in which the word anarchy is llsed throughout the text. Chfitelard, the sous-prCfet of Beauclair, is labeled such at various points in the novel. Zola writes: "Dans ce fonctionnaire [Chfitelard] si paisible, si sceptique, d'llne inaction totale et raisonnee, un veritable anarchiste avait filli par pousscr, qu'il dissimulait sous Ie dehors de sa diplomatique reserve" (801). This curious usage of

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 132. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=132

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For Caffiaux, one of Beauclair's store owners, Lue's phalanstere represents the anarchic dream of a state-less society: "[ ... ] i l n'y a aura plus d'autorite d'aucune sorte, plus de gouvernement, plus de juges, plus de prisons" (706). During the trial against Luc, the bourgeoisie mobilizes the fear of anarchy by presenting Luc's society as "un foyer de furiclise anarchic" that threatens the whole nation, "dont 1a contagion menayait Ie pays enticr" (720). Laboque's lawyer, repre senting the interests of the ruling class, states as much in the court room: "[ . . . J la fI!plique de I'avocat de Laboque fut si violente, il sauleva d e telles acclamations en traitant Lue d'anarchiste, acharne a 1a destruction de la ville, qu'il [Ie president Gaume] dut menacer de faire evacuer la salle, si de pareilles manifestations se renouvc laienf' (723). Hermeline, the staunch republican and instituteur of Beauc1air, defends as well a strong state against Luc's experiment with anarchy: "Comment veut-on que I'Etat ait des citoyens discipli nes, eleves pour Ie servir, lorsqu'on lache chez eux la bride de l ' individualite anarchiqueT (900). I n all of these examples, anarchy stands for the unthinkable, the limit of any political reform. Though the meaning of the word has obvious differences in the political conception of Luc than in that of the ruling class, I would argue that it functions i n similar ways by demarcating that which should be avoided. From this political function as appropriated by the bourgeoisie and Luc, 1 would like now to move to the role of anarchy within the telos of Travail's narrative . In an analogous fashion, the anarchist horizon defines the limits of the reality to be represented, demarcating the zones beyond which representability is no longer possible. Paradoxi cally, however, the impending catastrophe motivates the naturalist text, becomes its end-goal as it organizes its plot. I n other words, and to use Peter Brooks's terminology, the terrorist bomb "emplots" the novel. In Germinal, the book closes with Souvarine's attentat and the inundation of the mine. In the first book of Paris, the narrative hinges upon Salvat's bombing of the Duvillards' house; the rest of the novel leads to Guillaume's aborted plot of destroying the Sacre Ca:ur. In the word seems to denote a disaffected bureaucrat, blase to the point o f becoming nihilistic: ''Toute la politiquc pratique de Chatelard ctait d'ailleurs hi, dans la pl us belle indifference, quel que fUt Ie ministre qui se trouvat au pouvoir. C'ctait la vieille machine gouvemementale qui continuait a marcher d'elle-mcme [... ]" (612). Since this particular usage of the word anarchy does not contribute to my argument, I will not be treating it here.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 133. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=133

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Travail, however, the anarchist bark has no bite: although Lange announces his project of exploding the administrative branches of Beauc1air, he never acts upon it. As opposed to Souvarine's sabotage or Salvat's gesre, Lange becomes, in the words of Ragu, "un anarchiste manque" who no longer talks of destruction (93 1). Instead, we learn that his companion, la N u-Pieds, dies while assembling the explosives necessary to carry out their plan: "[ ... ] elle devait avoir ete foudroyee, pendant des essais pour charger les fameuses petites marmites" (932). The death ofla Nu-Pieds, paralleling the death of "Ie petit trottin blond" in Paris, highlights the futility of violence in bringing about social change. Travail is not devoid of catastrophe, however, and the usual piece de resistance of lola's novels comes at the end of the second book, when a series of related events lead from Fernande's rape to Luc's assassination attempt by Ragu and the incineration of L' Abime. Upon the ruins of the factory, Lange wishes that it had been his doing: "Non, non! je n 'ai pas a m 'en faire I 'hollneur, ce n'est pas moi qui l'ai allume" (8 1 9, emphasis added). Reconfiguring the scene as a n anarchist's wish reveals that Lange's attentat has been displaced and rewritten as a scene of sexual violence that leads to the demise of the bourgeoisie. Rather than coming at the beginning of the narrative-as in Paris--{Jr at the end-as in Germinal-the catastrophe occurs i n the middle of the narrative. The construction of this explosive narrative bounded by ultimate destruction operates within a naturalist register. As theJem mejatale i n the novel, Fernande i s depicted as a sower of disorder, parasitically feeding off the proletariat's labor to appease her insatiable need for luxury. Curiously, her description recalls certain traits of the anarchist Souvarine. She is supposedly a descendant of Russian nobility and she shares the pointed white teeth of her fellow countryman portrayed i n Germinal (Travail 601 -603, Germinal 1252). Of all the forces gnawing away at the structures of the bourgeoisie, Fernande's cupidity occupies a central role: "[ ...] c'etait it present Ie desastre qui conti nuait, un ferment pourrisscur qui achevait d'ancantir la famillc, ccttc Fernande tombee Iii. comme la ruine, avec ses petites dents blanches de terrible rongeuse" (603). In a reversal of the plot line, Lange's destructive wish is displaced as Femande imagines an attentat to bring down 1a CnJcherie. Described as a "gouffre" gobbling up the workers' efforts, Fernande introduces great imbalances in the economic forces of L' Abime. A conspicuous consumer, insatiable in her need for luxury, she asks her lover Boisgelin for an automobile: "[ ... ] c'etait elle qui avait souffle iI. Boisgelin cette demande de dix mille francs,

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pour I'aehat d'une automobile eiectrique, dans laquelle e1le avait I'ardent caprice de se [aire promener, en une folie de vitessc" (764). The words "caprice" and "folie de vitesse" highlight the frivolity of her needs; her desire for consumer goods eventually consume her and her class. In a moment of great lucidity, Delaveau, her husband, realizes that the Abime is destined to perish: "[ ... ] it reva que, SOus " Abime, it y avait des forces perverses et diaboliques qui mangeaient Ie sol, pour que l ' usine tout entiere s'engoutTriit, par une nuit fulgu rante d'orage" (768). Once Fernande discovers that her rate of spending might slow down due to Luc's successful social experiment, she strives to get rid of him. Her plot mimics the narrative strategy of emplotment as she carefully traces the events leading to Luc1s death. The occasion presents itself when her daughter, Nise, informs her that Josine is pregnant with Lue's baby. Fernande seizes this opportunity to bring down Luc by setting him off against Ragu: H[ ...J un drame ec1ata, qui devait foumir a Fernande la catastrophe revec, attcndue" (769, em phasis added). The choice of the word "drame" is very symbolic, since, as we have already noted, Zola constructs a dichotomy between [ 'idyl/e, or utopia, and the drame, or narrative (Speirs 139). With this new information, Femande puts together the story of Luc's assassination attempt by Ragu: "[ .. J elle n!vait d'empoisonner cette anne, de la rendrc mortelle. [ ... J Avec un jaloux comme Ragu, ivre, furieux, les evenements pouvaient se precipiter. 1 1 suffirait sans doute de lui faire sortir son couteau de la poche" (775). As narrator, she thinks of all the sinuous routes that could conduct to the final catastrophe. I-lerein lies the key to deciphering Fernande's tale: the final goal of destruction powers her narrative motor, just as Zola�s naturalist tales are motivated by cataclysmic endings: "Avertir Ragu, lui nommer I'homme dont il cherchait a connaitre Ie nom depuis trois mois, c'etait evidemment Ie plan indique, et la difficulte ne commenyait qu'ensuite, lorsqu'elle venait it se demander de que lie fayon elle avertirait Ragu, ou et par qui" (775). The problem lies not so much in the desired goal, Luc's death, as in how to build the narrative so as to achieve it. One solution would be to send an anonymous letter: HElie s'arreta enfin it une lettre anonyme, elle decouperait des mots dans un journal, elle les collerait, attendrait l a nuit pour aller jeter la lettre it la poste" (775). Not satisfied with this solution, however, Fernande searches for other ways of orchestrating the drama: "Decouragee [ ... J elle eherchait toujours, fievreuse, la tete malade de cette tragedie dont elle ne savait comment amener Ie denouement" (775, emphasis added). Femande finally decides to go

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 135. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=135

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herself to the factory and inform Ragu of Luc's guilt. As she impatiently awaits the break of dawn, she is once again cast in the role of narrator: "Tout marcherait tres bien, elle en etait convaincue. II lui semblait que Ie destin I 'emportait a des evenements necessaires, dont elle etait / 'ollvriere desiglU!e, qui ne pouvaient se refuser it son action" (776, emphasis added). At the indicated hour, "sept heures mains un quart, a I'heure exacte qu'elle s'Ctait fixee," she goes to find Ragu in the factory. She lets the secret out piecemeal, exciting Ragu's curiosity, mastering the course of the narrative; when Ragu rages against Josine upon hearing her name, Femande triumphantly observes that this was her desired goal: "C'etait cette violence que Fernande attendait. Elle feignit la surprise, la pitie, la desolation attendrie" (778) " The catastrophic ending is inevitable: the whole scene builds to a violent denouement as Ragu rapes Fernande. Whereas Ragu's attempted murder of Luc merits only a couple of succinct sentences, the rape scene is described in detail: "[...J il ia culbuta dans Ie coin, sur les vieilles hardes entassees, une couche infecte d'ignominie" (779, 7 8 1 ). The analogy between the rape scene and the assassination attempt becomes clear when Ragu finds his knife under one of Fernande's thighs: "[ ... ] il [Ragu] la [Fernande] poussa du pied, cherchant, de I'air d'un homme qui a perdu quelque chose; et, it chaque coup de pied, i l grognait: 'Salope! salope! salope!' Puis, a peine habille, il lrouva entin. C'etait son couteau qui avail glisse de sa poche, el qui etait SOllS une des jambes ecartees de la femme" (781), A parallel with La Bete ill/maine is warranted here as Zola writes: "Elle

42

The links betwccn this narrative mode and sexual desire come to the fore as Femande delays the conclusion to her talc by masturbating: [ . . .] clle ne souffrait que d'attendre si longtemps, ne sachant plus a quoi Ner les minutes, finissant par se caresser eUe-meme, pour apaiser un peu Ie feu dont sa peau briilait" (776). As Peter Brooks has demonstrated in his essays on narrative desire, "Narnllives {... J arouse and make use of desire as dynamic of signification" (Brooks 37). Drawing on both Serres's studies on thennodynamics and Freud's and Lacan's theories on desire, Brooks explains that the action of plotting, or emplotment, functions metonymically as dcsire movcs forward from one ersatz objcct to another in order to appease, albeit momentarily, its need for the absent original object (54-5). Thc only possible horizon of such a narmtive model has to be death or the absence of desire: "The desire of the text is ultimately the desire for the end, for that recognition which is the moment of the death of the reader in the text" ( 1 08). He concludes that plot is, most aptly, a steam engine" (44). On this subjcct, I direct my readers to Brooks's Reading for the Plot, as well as his article, "Machines et moteurs du n�cit." "

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[Fcrnande] fut consentante, die rendit son etreinte a la brute ivre, en un spasme jamais resscnti, qui la fit crier de plaisir [ou, comme 1a femelle qu 'un male eventre, au fond des bois" (781 ).43 The rape scene reconfigured as catastrophe is inscribed within the narrative of entropy and class struggle. The sexual crime takes place at the heart of the factory and it foreshadows the all-consuming fire that eventually destroys !'Abimc. Both Fernande and Ragu arc described as over-heated machines risking ultimate combustion. The former cannot put out the fire that bums her with desire, "Ie feu dont sa peau brfllait," and, similarly, the latter's face is described as being burned from his labor, "Ie ton du visage congestionne et deja cuit par Ie feu" (778). Words coming from the thermodynamic register dominate the scene: Son enragee besogne de la nuit, la sueur dont die I'avait inonde, Ie trempait, I'enjievrail encore, Ic sang commc wit par Ic jOllr, d'unc chaleur amassce, bdilallte cn ses veines. Et elle-mcme se sentait defaillir dans ce brasier abominable, emportcc, subjugucc, n'ayant plus I'audace d'appeler a son sccours (779, emphasis added)

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 136. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=136

.

Fernande associates her fate with that of I' Abime as the rape becomes the symbol of capitalist production: "[ ... ] cette volupte affreuse eta it faite de I 'abjection meme ou elle tombait [ ... ] de tout Ie sombre ecrase ment de I'Abime, du monstre mangeur d'existences, dont les tenebres traversees de flammes lui donnaient un vertige d'enfer" (781 ).44 The sub-text is undoubtedly the class struggle, displaced here into sexual violence, as Ragu and Femande represent the proletariat and the bourgeoisie respectively. Ragu lucidly explains this to Fernande when he states: "Ecoute, c'est toi qui Ie dis, les beaux messieurs cajolent nos femmes et leur font des enfants [... ] Alors, dis done, e'est bien juste

43

Upon learning that Luc has been "murdered," Fernande onee again Ihinks of the rape and associates it with death: [...] un alroce goOt de sang se melait a I'odeur de fauve qui I'enveloppait toute; et il entra une excitation monstmeuse du crime, dans son plaisir. Elle crut en mourir, lellement la sensation elail violente, aigue, pareille a un fer dont la pointe I'aurait labouree, aux pi is secrets les plus deli cats de la volupte" (783). 44 As Speirs has aptly staled: "Femande s'identifie dans Ie reseau metaphorique romanesque avec l' Abime et, par extension, avec Ie monSlre devuranl aUllue1 le heros est appelc a faire face" (429). "

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que nous leur rendions y a et que ce soit, des fois, Ie tour it leurs femmes d'y passer" (779). The cataclysm occurs at the end of the second book, when Fernande finally avows her infidelity to Delaveau. Motivated by her ennui that gnaws at her after the high note of Ragu's sexual violence, Fernande's confession is seen as a death wish to escape the monotony of her existence: Brusquement, I 'aveu lui etait monte a la gorge. Lui crier va dans sa figure de chien, lui crier qu'elle ne I'avait jamais aime, qu'eHe etait la maitresse d'un autre! C'etait Ie coup de couteau qui fcrait taire son rire. [ . J Une fois encore, la vision de Ragu passa, elle cut un eri d'aoominable jouissance, en sc jetant ellc mcme au gouffre (813). .

.

The sounds of the power hammers that resonate throughout the scene highlight the presence of the industrial world destined to perish as well: "[ ] au milieu de I'effrayant silence, Delaveau entendit les coups cadences du marteau-pilon, ce branle du travail qui, sans arret beryait ses jours et ses nuits" (814). Furthermore, the intolerable heat that permeates the scene and rises i n a crescendo, represents the over heated machine. Upon entering the room, Fernande remarks: "'Mon Dieu! qu'il fait chaud ki! Est-il possible de vivre avec un feu pareW" (809)7 Even before Delaveau decides to set the room on fire, the combustion has started: "[... ] il aperyut la cheminee de t6le, oil brlilait un tel brasier de coke, que la piece surchauffee en etait comme incendiee deja." (8 1 5). The inevitable fate that carries the narrative to its own death is emphasized when the narrator concludes: "[ ... ] c'etait comme un destin furieux qui grondait en ouragan, tout se trouvait emporte, balaye, aneanti. { ... J Le feu vengeur, Ie feu purificateur vena it de lOmber lit en coup de foudre, et il rasait Ie champ entier, et il 1e deblayait des decombres, dont la chute du vieux monde l'avait obstrue" (81 9).45 Fernande's initial intention of destroying l a Crecherie has been reversed as she eventually destroys her own caste. Over the ashes of I' Abime hover the ominous words of Lange: "Lange avait raison, il est des heures tragiques au les societes caduques, frappees de folie, se jettent au bucher" ( 8 1 9). The catastrophe marks the end of the naturalist mode that has been juxtaposed throughout the text with the idylle; by melting away the constraints that map the

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 137. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=137

...

45 This scene echoes the ending of La COl/quete de Plassalls as well as the burning of the Hourdequin's farmhouse in La Terre in Les Rougoll-Macqllart series.

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limits of the naturalist genre, the utopian impulse is free to invade the text: "Maintcnant, la besogne clait faite, I'horizon ctait libre, a I'infini, et la Cite naissante de justice et de paix pouvait pousser Ie flot vainqueur de ses maisons jusqu'au bout des vastes plaines" (8\9).

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Beyond Narrative Entropy: Utopia

The passages cited above are characterized by traits that, as we have argued all along in this study, belong to the naturalist palette: the catastrophic horizon that propels the narrative forward; the explosive social atmosphere fueled by class conflict; the anarchist character that conceives a terrorist attack. In the last book of the novel, a significant change in the treatment of these clements effectively dislocates the naturalist paradigm to supplant it with a utopia. First of all, Travail continues and crowns the transformations i n the treatment of the technical object detected i n Paris. The binarism that structures the novel, between a thermodynamic model charac terized by increasing entropy and an electric force that effectively by passes the steam engine, dramatizes these changes.46 This dichotomy organizes space-setting off against each other l' Abime and la Cre cherie-as well as characters, Morfain clearly defending the thermo dynamic model and Jordan envisioning its demise through his research on electric power. As a metallurgical factory, l'Ablme is rich in scenes that celebrate fire in its transformational capacity all the while indicating its constant threatening qualities. Luc admires the beauty of the workers as they melt the raw materials that eventually become steel: "'Bonnaire achevait de brasser une derniere fois Ie metal en fusion, les deux cents kilogrammes de fonte, que Ie four et 1e travail allaient transformer en acier" (572, emphasis added). In a

46 Noiray has succinctly explained this structuring principle in

Travail. He writes: "II est facile de degager, tant elle est evidente et volontairement schematique, la structure antithetique de Travail. Le roman, bati sur un contrastc symboliquc, oppose I'enfcr nair de l'Abimc, lieu du travail pervet1i, aux lumicres celestes de la Crecherie, lieu du travail rcgencrc. Au tableau dc l'ancien mondc, fonde sur un systemc doublemCni archai·que, socialement par l'exploitation dc l'homme par l'homme, teclllliquemem

par I '/ltilisation excl/lsive de " energie Ihermiq/le iss/le de 10 vape/lr ef d/l charbon (Ies dellx premieres parties dll I'Omall) se substitue progressivement dans la troisieme

parti� l'aputheose du dcuxicm� iig� industric1, cclui du 'travail delivrC' grace a l'application univcrselle de la 'force dll nouvel age,' l'Clcctricite" (209, 1 9 8 1 , emphasis added).

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similar vein, Luc admires the pouring of the melted metal by a worker: "On aurait dit qu'il transvasait de claires liqueurs pailletces d'or, tout cela se faisait sans bmit, avec des gestes precis et legers, d'une beaute simple, dans i'ec1at et la chaleur du feu qui changeait 1a halle entiere en un brasier devorant" (576), Already hinted at in this last quote,-"un brasier devorant"-the description of I'Abime relies heavily on volcanic images, thus linking it to disaster: "[ ... ] c'ctaient ainsi, rayant la terre battue de la salle tenebreuse, six fentes ouvertes sur I'enfer interieur, sur Ie volcan, en continuelle activite, dont grondait Ie brasier interieur" (573). Words such as "lave," "vol can," and "volcanique," interspersed with a wide range of terms re lated to heat and fire-"brasier," "etincelles," "rouge"-color the scene. Two converging elements reinforce this menacing aspect of I'Abime. On the one hand, recalling the Voreux of Germinal, I' Abime is depicted as a monster ready to devour the workers: "[ ... ] des Ie seuil, c'etaient surtout les martinets qui assourdissaient les visiteurs, les deux martinets installes dans une sorte de cave, dont on voyait les grosses tetes, des tc�tes de bete vorace" (57 1 ). furthermore, the image of a barbaric deity so effectively used in Germinal reappears once more: "[ .. J ses monstrueux outils, sa presse d'une force de deux mille tonnes, ses marteaux de forces moindres, echelonnees, qui avaient, au fond de la demi-obscurite, des profils noirs et trapus de dieux barbares" (577). On the other hand, as an anns facto!), manufacturing weapons destined for war, l'Abime contributes to the forces of death: "Luc, de tout eet hero"ique travail humain, du feu dompte, asservi, pour la royaute de I'homme, vainqueur des forces naturelles, vit se dresser une vision de massacre, la folie rouge d'un champ de bataille" (577). These menacing characteristics of l'Abime thus temper and annul the beauty of the workers, effectively situating the anns facto!), within the forces fostering murderous social divisions. Whereas the Abime becomes a locus of thermodynamic processes, the dialectical tensions between an outdated mode of production and the modern electrical-powered machines are focused on Jordan' s blast furnace, la Crcehcrie. The machine, as colossal as Ie Voreux and la Lison, operates within the thermodynamic paradigm. Its monstrosity is accentuated as the reader discovers it piecemeal: "En levant la tete, a chaque coude du sentier, on apercevait la masse noire du haut four neau, se detachant de plus en plus nette dans la nuit bleue, avec les .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 139. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=139

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etranges profils des organes mecaniques, groupes autour du foyer central" (639). Hues cf red and black alongside volcanic and incandes cent images punctuate its description.47 Furthermore, the person ification and deification of the industrial process rerurn once more as Zola relies heavily on his "signature" descriptions of machinery. On the one hand, he likens the melting of raw materials to digestion: "[ ... ] remarquez que I'operation entiere est hI, dans cctte descente lente des rnatieres digerees, dans cette digestion tota1e, car toutes les amelio rations realisees n'ont eu pour dessein jusqu'ici que de 1a faciliter" (642). On the other hand, Zola draws upon the image of a hidden deity controlling the machine: "[ ... J dans Ie silence lourd du dieu accroupi, dont Ie ventre incendie n'avait pas mcme un murmure, on n1entendait toujours que le petit ruissellement des gouttes d1eau qui lui tombaient des flancs" (645). Finally, as a thermodynamic machine par excellence, la Crecherie suffers from increasing entropy and the possibility of heat-death: "[... J si I'on veille sur son bon fonctionne ment avec tant de soins, c'est que l'cternelle menace est qu'il s'eteigne de lui-meme, dans quelque catastrophe d'entrailles, dont on n'aurait pas prevu la gravite. Et s 'eteindre, pour lui. c 'est fa lIlort" (643, emphasis added). The character of Morfain, whose very name indicates his eventual death, underscores the primitive technology of the smelting furnace. The mythical and symbolic aspects of Morfain are accentuated through constant references to Vulcan, his "religious" cult to the Cre cherie,48 and his unusual living quarters within a cavern.49 Further more, he and his offspring seem to resist any change, living at the margins of civilization: "On aurait dit trois revenants des epoques dis-

47 The melting process is described thus: "Le trou de coulee se trouvait dans Ie flanc droit du haut foumeau; et, debouche deja, il laissait echapper les laitiers en un flat de seories etincclant, eomme si ]'on cut ecume la la pleinc chaudicrc du metal cn fusion. C'etait une bouillie epaisse, qui roulait lentement [ ... ] parcille a une lave couleur de soleH" (645). 48 201a writes: "II [Morfain] avait fini par aimer Ic monstrc, dont les coulees de lave ardcnte lui avaient brflle la face, depuis plus de trente annees. C'ctait un geant, un maitre, Ie dieu du feu qu'il adorait [ ]" (643). 49 Jordan explains to Lue that Morfain and his family live in the caves: "Mais la, dans ces anciennes grottes, qu'il a transfonnces en une sorte de logement" (639). It is interesting to note that the only other eharacter that chooses to live in this way is the anarchist Lange: "Lange, ainsi que Morfain, s'ctait fait une demeure d'un trou rochcux" (662). Whercas the anarchist charactcr succecds in adapting to the utopian community, Morfain is destined to pass away with the death of the old social system. ...

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parues. [ .. . ] sachant it peine lire, n'ayant pas meme ete touche par I'esprit nouveau qui souffiait, i l [Morfain] etait sans revolte, il acceptait Ie dur servage" (640, 643).50 Morfain embodies a tragic thermodynamic hero, the stigma of his symbolic role inscribed into his physical traits:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 141. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=141

La tete cnom1e, la faee large, ravinee et rollssie par laflamme. Un front bossuc, un nez en bee d'aig1c et des yeux de braise, entre des joues que des laves sem blaient avoir devastces. Une bouche ennee, tordue, d'un rouge fauve de brll/llre. Et des mains qui avaient la couleur ct la force de deux pinces de vieil acier (640, emphasis iUJlk--J).

The vocabulary used to depict Morfain exposes his close relationship to the furnace. As representatives of the thermodynamic era, both are destined to disappear and to be replaced by Jordan's electric motors. The scientist/inventor Jordan, haunted by the inevitable increase in entropy that accompanies any thermodynamic process, searches for an electric furnace in the hopes of minimizing the dissipation of energy. With optimism, he declares to a skeptical Luc: ''rai deja de bons resultats, on emmagasinera un jour la force electrique, on l a canalisera, on l a dirigera sans perle aucune" (633, emphasis added). To achieve this goal, Jordan dreams of a process that would effec tively eliminate the steam engine: "[ ... ] il faudrait supprimer l a machine it vapeur, l a chaudiere, qui est I'intennediaire genant, entre l a houille extraite et l'electricite produite" (855). Jordan's daily work is described in temlS similar to those used for the electric furnace, where all energy is concentrated so as to avoid any useless effort: "Luc trouva la reponse it cette question qu'il s'etait posee souvent, de savoir ou Jordan, si chetif, trouvait la force de travaux enormes. I I ne l a trouvait que dans l a methode, par I'emploi sage et raisonne de ses moyens, si petits qu'ils fussent" (634). Jordan, then, represents the prophet who announces the end of the industrial age motored by steam and bounded by entropy. The scene that best represents these technological transformations occurs in the Third Book, when Jordan finally discovers a way to by pass the steam engine: "Jordan venait enfin de realiser sa grande

50 In this vein, Zola adds: "Morfain, tel qu'un heros legendaire, n'avait pas meme I'air de se douter de I'iniquitc monstrueuse, ignorant les fI!vollL"S, I'orage qui grondait, impassible a son poste meurtrier [ . ..J" (647).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 142. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=142

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reuvre: il avait trouve Ie moyen de transformer directement !'energie calorifiquc contcnue dans Ie charbon, en cncrgic electriquc, sans passer par I'energie mecanique, c'est-a-dire en supprimant 1a machine a vapeur, eet intermediaire si encombrant, si couteux" (874). Zola highlights the importance of this event by bringing together Morfain and Jordan in an ultimate show-down; in an act of desperation, the tro glodyte vandalizes the new machines only to be killed by them: "[ ... ] il saisit Ie cable entre ses mains durcies par Ie feu, pareilles it. des pinces de fer. Et il Ie tordit, il Ie rompit. [... ] ce fut la foudre, les fils s'etaient touches, une etincelle fonnidable avait jailli, eblouissante" (878). Just as the fire of the smelting furnace is extinguished (875-77) to give way to the electric machines, Morfain must be evacuated from the narrative as symbol of a conquered past: ��Avec lui [Morfain], finissait la lutte premiere, I'homme dompteur du feu, conquerant des metaux, courbe sous I'esclavage de la douloureuse besogne. [ ... ] La force du nouvel age, la foudre qu'il etait venu nier, insulter, I'avait aneanti, et il domlait" (879). The new electrical machines bring about alterations to the technical object similar to those registered in Paris. Jacques Noiray has meticulously catalogued the aesthetic changes that mark Zola's work once the machine is domesticated: "[... ] I'abandon de la vapeur comme force motrice provoque une transformation de l'apparence exterieure de la machine" (476, 1 9 8 1 ). Noiray associates these changes with a deflation of the technical object's dramatic value: "Le moteur n'est plus decrit, parce qu'il n'y a plus rien a decrire. [ ...J Dans Travail, s' it fournit quelques renseignements sur la forme et les dimensions du four de Jourdan, Zola ne s'attarde pas a une description qui, visiblement, ne I'interesse gucre" (477, 1 9 8 1 ). Rather than active participants in the narrative, the machines are depicted as simple decor, transformed into altars in front of which marriages are celebrated. Nise and Nanet get married in the factory, amidst the power hammers and furnaces: "[ ... ] on n'aurait pas pu imaginer [ ... ] un decor plus beau que ces outils geants. [. . .] on les orna de feuillages, on Ics couronna de £leurs, en hommagc, ainsi que les anciens autels" (85 1 ). Paradoxically, as their dramatic value decreases, their efficiency increases; they ease the burden of labor by supplanting the worker's toil: Les m
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libcratrice, devenue I'universel outil, pcinant pour l'homme, pendant qu'il se reposait (894).5 1

These significant changes in the transfomlation of the technical object in Zola's reuvre correspond to deeper philosophical shifts in his world-view: the catastrophic conception that dominates most ofZola's early narratives is progressively replaced by a more optimistic rendering of nature in which violence is excised from technology. Whereas the fonner narratives still obey the second law of thermodynamics, the electrical paradi gm is posited as overcomin g these scientific constraints. Noiray explains:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 143. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=143

Alors que I'usage de I'cnergie thermique donne a la technique du premier age industriel un aspect tOtuours chaotique et dcmesure, artificiel et inhumain, I'emploi de 1'6k.'Ctricite engendre une nouvelle fonne de technique equilibree et naturelle, et retablit ainsi I'hamlonie d'un cosmos dans lequel I'homme et ses outils, enfin n&concilies, retrouvent leur juste place (Noiray 490, 1981).

Prophetically,52 this evolution reaches its apex when Jordan is able to capture solar energy directly from its source, thus by-passing any intermediary apparatus that might waste energy: "[ ... J il [Jordan] reussit a resoudre Ie probleme, Ie bon et glorieux soleil se laissa prendre un peu de son inepu isable flamme, dont il rechauffe la terre de puis tant de siecles, sans se refroidir" (946). The contrast with Morfain's blast furnace, which inevitably meets death through heat exhaustion, is underscored by the choice of words to describe solar energy: "sans se refroidir." Curiously, Zola omits here any reference to apocalyptic prophecies---cu rrent in the nineteenth century-about the eventual death of the sun; he clearly adopts a vitalistic position that opposes the second law of thermodynamics. He thus inscribes the sun within a narrative of fecundity, a father that impregnates Beauclair with an endless source of energy: "[ . . . J c ' etait I'immense ciel bleu, le

5 1 Noiray explains i t thus: "A I'hostilite, a I'inhumanite fondamentale d'une machine monstrueuse et meurtnere, va se substituer progressivement I'image rassurante de 'la machine en lin amie'" (Noiray 215, 1981). 52 See endnote #68 in the edition of Le Cercle du Livre Precieux: "Le four solaire, qui reh':ve dans ce roman de la science-fiction, a ete realise de nosjours. C'est un apparcil qui utilise la chaleur rayonnee par Ie suleil, pour obtenir des temperatures tr�s ClevCes" (992).

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soleil arnica! resplendissant a I'horizon, Ie fecondateuf, Ie perc, dont on avait capte ct domcstique la force crcatrice" (969). If Jordan fulfils the role of the scientist that brings about the desired technological changes, Luc is the "Messiah" responsible for reconciling opposing social classes into a fraternal community_ The evacuation of violence from the machine is the technological complement to the advent of this social harmony that eliminates any possibility of violent revolution. As we have already remarked, the first part of the novel registers the tensions produced by class conflicts: "[... 1 il [Luc] avait vu les deux faces de cet execrable monde, dont la charpente craquait de pourriture: la misere inique des uns, la richesse empoisoIll1euse des alltres" (626). Social revolution is the inevitable result of these divisions: "Tant d'iniquite et de misere appelait la catastrophe finale, qui lui aussi avait senti venir du fond de I 'horizon, telle qu'une nuee vengeresse qui bnllerait, qui raserait Beauclair" (562). These conflicts are blamed on social imbalances that waste human energies, thus reinscribing them within a paradigm of entropy: [ ] that simplicity of the electric motor, which renders obsolete the complex organism of the steam cngine, docs nothing more than 10 reproduce in the technical field the elimination of the useless cogwheels in the social machine: the bureaucrats, the middlcmen, especially the shopkeepers, who only serve to waste the available amount ofenergy (my lralls/alioll, Besa 144). 53 Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 144. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=144

...

Luc remarks repeatedly, for example, that the intemlediary conuner cial outlets that stand between the producers and the consumers are merely cogs that reduce the efficient distribution of goods in a society: "Toute une deperdition de force et de richesse s'engouffrait chez eux, dans leur honnetete relative de commerr;ants. [ ... J Des rouages inutiles, qui mangeaient de I'energic, ct dont grinr;ait la machine en train de se detraquer" (553). Femande, representing the upper classes, is con demned for her parasitic idleness that absorbs too much energy, a "gouffre" that vampiristically feeds off the workers' labor (766); Delavcau, however, is presented as a hard worker, thus partially

53 [ ] esa simplicidad del motor elcetrieo, que convierte en obsoleto el eomplicado organismo de [a maquina de vapor, no haee mas que reproducir en el ambito de la tccnica la eliminaci6n de los engrenajes inutiles de la maquina social: los funcionarios, los intennediarios, los comerciantes sobre todo, que no hacen mas que malgastar la energia disponible." ...

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 145. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=145

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pardoned from his bourgeois status.54 The dichotomy that separates the idleness of Fernande. Boisgelin, or even Ragu from the productivity of Delaveau and Jordan shifts attention away from the economic causes that sustain class divisions. The text slips into "natural" arguments where work is defined in vitalistic rather than social terms: "Une ville, une commune, n'etait plus qu'une ruche, dans laquelle il n'y avait pas un oisif, OU chaque citoyen donnait sa part d'effort a I'reuvre d'ensemble, dont la cite avait besoin pour vivre" (654). Luc's project to harmonize the social classes is nevertheless motivated by a principle of efficiency, a social engineering that cali brates human energies. To achieve this lofty goal, the individual must first of all find equilibrium between all of his or her passions, a lesson that Luc learns as he reads the Fourierist treatise, Solidarite: "Les pas sions, dans la libre societe future, devaient produire autant de bien, qu'elles avaient produit de mal, dans la societe enchainee, terrorisee, des siecles morts. [...J Privc d'une passion, l 'homme serait mutile, comme s'il etait prive d'un sens" (654). With this individual at its base, society is re-organized so as to minimize friction between social contacts: "Dans la machine sociale, les rouages interrnediaires etaient a detruire, comme inutiles, mangeant de la force. [...J la reorganisation du travail serait Ie fondement meme de la societe future, qui ne pourrait etre que par une juste distribution de la richesse" (655). The efficiency principle that guides Luc's goals brings about the end of all social conflicts: "[ ...J il n'y avait plus de lutte de classes, puisqu'une class unique existait, tout un peuple d'mtisans, egalement riches, egalement heureux, de meme instruction, de meme education, sans nulle difference ni dans Ie costume, ni dans Ie logement, ni dans les mreurs" (955).55 The utopian community thus evacuates the contra-

54 Delaveau is described thus: '"Leve tot Ie matin, il etait Ie dernier a quitter les hailes, Ie soir, toujours en surveillance, eonduisant son vaste personnel comme il aurait conduit un regiment. Puis, c'etait un effort SOUlcnu de loules ses facuhes rcmarqua bles, beaucoup de rectitude dans sa mdesse, une puissance rare de methode et de logique, une loyaut6 de lulleur qui a promis vaincre, qui veut vaincre ou perir" (766). Curiously, some of these traits are used to describe Jordan, especially his tenacity and flawless method. 55 Political dissidence disappears as well: bOlh Ihe collectivist Bonnaire and the anarchist Lange give up Iheir partisan views to subscribe to luc's new religion "[...] partie de l'experience de Fourier, la Cite nouvelle devait-elle, a chaque clape, se lransformer, avancer vers plus de liberle et plus d 'equite, faire en chemin la conquete

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dictions inherent in economic reality by appealing to a mythic Peuple, here rewritten as a collection of independent producers, that unites all factions of society,56 The feasts that punctuate life in the Commune underscore the feeling of solidarity that binds the members together: [ ... ] 1a paque de co peuple fraternel allair s'achever SOllS les etoiles, en une immense communion, coude a coude, sur la memo nappe, parmi les memes roses effeuillees. Toute la ville devenait un banquet geant, les families se meiaient, se confondaient en une famille unique [ . . . ]" (941). To the couple Jordan-Luc that brings about the desired technical and social changes, one must add Lange, who completes the triumvirate by becoming the cultural spokesperson of the commune. Upon first meeting Lange, Luc discovers beneath his terrorist demeanor a gentler essence: "[ ... J sous I'enveloppe mal degrossie, sous la violence apparente, il etait surpris de sentir un contemplatif, un reveur tres doux, un simple poete rustique, qui, dans I'absolu de son idee de justice, en venait a vouloir faire sauter Ie vieux monde coupa ble" (663). His poetic nature finds expression in his pottery and ware, which Luc describes as being of popular beauty: "[ ... ] ce qui Ie [Luc] frappait, dans la poterie courante que Lange fabriquait [ ...J c'etait I'elegance des formes, Ie charme pur des colorations, toute une tlorai son heureuse du genie populaire" (664). As the text abandons its "nat uralist" tendencies to favor a utopian mode, Lange's hidden artistic talents win out over his terrorist penchants; his transformation sym bolizes the triumph of the creative forces over the destructive ones. Yet, as the only artist portrayed in the novel, his discourse on art does not only serve a mythical role, it also represents Zola's own aesthetic manifesto. Lange advocates a popular art over an aristocratic

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 146. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=146

"

des socialistes de sectes ennemies, les collectivistes, les anarchisles eux-mcmes, pour finir par les grouper tous en un peuple fratemel" (953). 56 The social reconciliation is achieved through marriages that bring into contact the bourgeoisie, the peasants, the proletariat and the store-owners, Reproduction is elevated to a moral dictate as the sexual "perversity" of Femande and Ragu becomes a thing of the past. In his notes, Zola writes: "C'est du travail que I'enfant mis au mondc [ . ..J quc des cnfants poussent, ils nc scront que des instruments dc richesse, des aeeroisscmcnts du capital humain" (977). Furthcrmore, all barriers bctvt'cen living beings and even inorganic matter arc transcended: "[ ...] celie con fiance des rouges gorges et des pinsons etait infiniment douce, celebrait dans l'air calme du soir l'alliance faite desormais entre tous les elres, l ' universelle paix qui regnait entre les hommes, les betes et les choses" (938).

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one, deeming the latter futile and barren: [ ] la croyance it 1a superiorite de l'art aristocratique etait imbecile" (930). By popular art, Lange means essentially two different artistic practices. On the one hand, he wants to democratize luxury by allowing beauty to enter every day life. According to Lange, art does not belong in the museum, but rather in the house: "II n'avait point renonce aux objets les plus humbles, la simple argile, la poterie de cuisine et de table, des marmites, des terrines, des cruches, des assiettes, exquises de fonnes et de couleurs mel ant aux besognes infimes, it la banale vie quotidienne, Ie charme glorieux de I'art" (929)Y Lange abandons his artisan mode of production, however, as he relies on a factory to produce his ware-"une fabrique considerable de gres et de fai"en ces" (929). On the other hand, in a more individual artistic mode, Lange's popular expression is translated into small toys that he sculpts for children. These statuettes represent different workers at their profession; no doubt that they are destined to instruct the children by idealizing work: "

. , ,

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ElIcs (les figurines] represenlaicnl lcs sujets lcs plus simples du monde, les occupations de tous les jours, les menus actes et les joies fugitives de chaque heure, des enfants pleunmt ou riant, des jeunes filles faisant Ie menage, des ouvriers au travail, la vie en continuelle et merveilleuse flomison. [... J 'Encore ce paysan qui moissonne, encore eette femme qui lave son linge' (930).

The conception of art as socially conscious goes hand in hand with the technological shifts and the calibrated forces of society that pennit a regulation of social forces: "e'etait sa theorie [it Lange], il fallait de la beaute au peuple, pour qu'il fUt sain et fraternel. [ ... ] c'etait toujours du peuple que l'art tleurissait, pour I'embellir lui-meme, lui donner Ie parfum et I'eclat, aussi necessaire it son existence que Ie pain de chaque jour" (930),58

57

For a description of the democratization of luxury at the end of the nineteenth century, see Rosalind Williams's Chapter 5, "Decorative Arts Refonn and Democratic Consumption" in her DrewlI Worlds: Mass COlISumption ill Lare Nilleleelllh-Celllllry France. In it, she asserts: "One of the sadder characters in Travail is Lange, a potter of anarchist politics [, . ]. When the utopian city-garden is finally established, the small shop of this independent artisan is replaced by an immense factory that churns out tiles, bricks, crockery, and other decorations 10 adorn workers' houses" (198). 58 Behind Lange's theory on art, we find again the anarchist theorists, Kropotkin and Grave. See especially Speirs, pp. 185, 215, and 222. Speirs notes that Jean Grave accorded an important moralizing role to art: "Si tout est a tous, il en va de meme .

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 148. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=148

Analogous to Lange's statuettes, Zola's depictions of the prole tariat in this particular novel have moralizing overtones. Previously, he had been harshly criticized by leftist groups for his portrayal of the working class as crass, dirty and hopeless, especially after the publication of L 'Assommoir. Zola defended his portrayal as a faithful depiction of reality. Responding to the biting comments that condemned his first novel that dealt with "Ie Peuple," he excused himself by claiming: «J'ai fait ce qu'il y avait a faire: j'ai rnontre des plaies, j'ai eclaire violemment des souffrances et des vices, que l'on peut guerir. [... ] Je ne suis qu'un greffier qui me defends de conclure" (Pleiade, II, 1 56 1 ). This passive recording role of writing changes in the utopian mode, where Zola embraces a more prescriptive attitude. tn his preparatory notes to the Evangiles, Zola asserted that his books were intended to reach the common people and not only the educated sector of the population: "II faut que ces romans n'aillent pas qu'a des lettres" (506). Ironically, by advocating a popular art that serves educational purposes, Zola reconciles his position with that of Proudhon. If, as we have argued, Lange also serves as a spokesperson for Zola's own aesthetic intentions, the naturalist writer has then adopted an anarchist position, albeit a moralizing rather than revolutionary one.59 Once again, Zola rejects the experimentation that anarchism made possible in the arts by

pour l'art. Comme il I'avait dej a fait a deux reprises, Zola souligne la fonction educative et Ie caracterc essentiellcment populaire de I'art anarchiste" (222). As described in the introduction, many symbolist pocts whcre capitalizing on anarchist tenets to engage politically without falling into momlizing art: "In symbolist critical and theoretical writing, onc of the most frcqucntly rceurring poims is thc horror of didacticism" (Herbert 127). These fears notwithstanding, the thcorists of the party, including Kropotkin and Grave, were encouraging artists to parake t actively in the political struggles of the masses. Herbert explains: "Kropotkin believed that contemporary art was decadent because it was the monopoly of a decadent class; it had lost all roots in the life of the people. To regain its fonner stature it must reintegrate itself into social life and mirror the ideas genninating within this society" ( 1 4). Some of these ideas were espoused by the Nco-Impressionists, notably Luce, Pisarro and Signac who contributed to the anarchist press and produced work that could be called "propaganda." See especially Herbert, Chapter 6. 59 The work of literature in Luc's Commune is described in the following manner: "[. ..] des ecrivains donnai cnt a ce peuple innombmble, a la nation entiere qui les lisait, des reuvres fortes, puissantes, vasles, nees d'elle-mcme et failes pour elles. [...] Ce n'ctait plus la serre chaw.le d'une littcrature born("C, aristocralique, c'etait la pleine humanite, des poemes ou debordait la vie de tous, que lous avaient aide a faire de leur sang, et qui retoumaient au ceem de tous" (956).

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choosing the more "gentle"-although perhaps more insidious position of propaganda. From entropy to electricity, from class difference to fraternal hannony, from depiction to prescription, the last book of the novel effectively cancels out the elements that characterized the naturalist genre. Most critics have noted how these shifts bring about the death of narrative as it suspends time and space, the most basic raw mate rials of the novel. The utopian mode effectively evacuates the real from the narrative, moving the text away from the entanglement of history to ensconce it in the comfort of wishful-thinking that resolves the untenable contradictions registered in reality. To unveil these con tradictions, I now turn to a comparison between the World's Fair of 1 900 and the "exposition" framework that accompanies the display of the utopia in the last book of the novel. The Anarchic Commune as World's Fair

When asked to write an article for Fernand Labori's Grande Revue treating the Parisian World's Fair of 1900, Zola refused b� disengaging himself from the festivities. In a letter dated March 1 St , 1 900, the very same day that he would sit down at his desk to write the first page of the novel Travail, he replied: "Je ne suis pas du tout dans un etat d'ame a c6l6brer notre Exposition, a chanter glorieu sement notre fin de siecle. [ J Je ne suis pas de cette Exposition, et j e ne veux pas en etre, par aucune manifestation" (Correspondance 138, Vol. X). Had Labori asked a month later-the inauguration of the World's Fair took place on April 14th-perhaps Zola would have acquiesced to the request, for he became an avid visitor to the Exposition. In her memoirs, Denise LeBlond-Zola describes her father's fascination with the industrial exhibit of the ga/erie de ma chines in the World's Fair: "Nous y passions des heures. Mon pere regardait, ecoutait, visiblement interesse ..." (250). Furthennore, the over one hundred photographs that he took of the different pavilions and exhibits sprawled out over Trocadcro, thc Champs dc Mars, and along the Seine attest to his admiration and interest in this affair:60

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 149. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=149

...

60 For readers interested in seeing Zola's photographs of the World's Fair, I recommend Zofa: Pholographe, edited by Fran�ois Emile Zola and Massin, and published by Denoei, especially pp. 130-146.

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 150. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=150

201a sil10nnc I'Exposition avec un apparcil pholographiquc de poche charge de films en celluloid, ct it prcnd des ccntaines de cliches. II escalade Ie Tmcadcro ou deux etages de 1a tour EifTeJ, bmque son objeclif, sous tous Ics angles, sur tous les pavillons, sur la Grande Roue et Ie Globe Celeste, sur la monumentale porte d'entree recouverte de 3200 lampes a incandescence Cl de 40 lampes :i J'arc, sur Ie trottoir roulant et Ie train dcctriquc qui font Ie tour comple! du peri metre (Co,.respolldallce 27, Vol. X).61

Given the simultaneity of the World's Fair of 1900 and the writing of the second volume of Zola's Quatre Evangiles, it might come as a surprise that critics have neglected to explore the relationship between these two events. The edition of the novel from the Cercle du Livre Precieux even suggests this link as it includes several pictures of the Exposition Univcrsellc. 1 wou l d suggest that Travail insidiously com ments upon this event by displacing the World's Fair into Luc's utopian commune. Although the parallel between a socialist utopia and a capitalist festival such as a World's Fair might seem incongruous at first, the two actually maintained close ties all throughout the nineteenth century. Both Saint-Simonian technocracies and Fourieriest phalanste res infonn the philosophical underpinnings of the Exposition Univer selle. Pascal Ory remarks that the optimism, industrialism, and pater nalism characteristic of these events-which took place periodically in France from 1 855 to 1 937 and passing through 1 867, 1 878, 1 889, and 1 900-find their origins in Saint-Simon's thought: "On peut meme donner it ses origines un nom plus precis encore; elle est sainl simonienne" ( 1 8). Furthennore, the physical aspect and layout of the buildings during these carnivals realize the idealistic dreams of Fourier's utopian communes. Revealing the underlying complicity with capitalist structures, Fourier's phalansferes emulate the various arcades used for commercial purposes at the beginning of the nineteenth-century: "Dans les passages Fourier a vu Ie modele architectural du phalanstere. [...] Avec Ie phalanstt':re Ie passage devient ville" (Benjamin 1 26, 1 971 ).62 Even the anarchist Proudhon 61

Alain Buisine, in his infomlative article, "Les chambres noires du roman," reminds his readers of this overlap: "Travail est publie en 1901 : aulrement dit son elaboration est strictement contemporaine des nombreuses photographies que fait Zola a l'Exposition Universel1e, en 1 900" (265). 62 Benjamin goes Oil to mention Zola's Travail in this celebrated essay: "Dans son Travail Zola reprend les idees de Fourier comme, dans Therese Raqllill, il dit adieu aux passages" ( 126, 1971).

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 151. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=151

was taken by these Expositions, proposing a permanent World' s Fair in his 1 85 5 essay entitled "Projet d'exposition pcrp6tuelle." Though Proudhon unmasks the national and monetary interest invested in these shows, he nevertheless uses them as a spring board to create an anarchic commune. Proudhon writes: "[ ... J il faut d'une exposition passagere, sorte de joute industrielle, entreprise au point de vue th6atrale et sterile de la vanite des nations et de I'orgueil des fabricants, faire une Exposition permanente, au point de vue positif, realiste et pratique de t 'echange des produits" (301). Political activism was also promoted during the World's Fairs as they provided fertile ground for workers' organizations. The paternalism that these festivals entailed notwithstanding,6J leaders of the labor movement capitalized on these events to hold congresses and mobilize the proletariat. Marx's International evolved from the workers' delegations to the London's Fair of 1 85 1 and 1 862. Moreover, the 1 878 Fair in Paris "hosted an International Congress on the Rights of Women, a Congress for the Protection of Literary Property [ ... J and a Congress for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Blind" (Sieburth ix). The World's Fair thus had an ambivalent status, oscillating between the fetishistic commodification symptomatic of the leisure industry being consolidated at the end of the century and the dreams of a fraternal harmony advocated by utopian socialists such as Saint-Simon and Fourier: These utopias of transparency and equality, the very architecture of which 'occupies the role of the subconscious' (inasmuch as it projects both an archaic fantasy of the classless prehistory of society and a wish-symbol of the future) are for Benjamin inseparable from their nightmarish opposite-[ . ] a universe of infinite reproducibility and substitutability [of] reified [. . ] dehumanization (Sieburth ix). .

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Of the many World's Fairs held throughout the nineteenth century, the 1 900 Parisian Exposition Universelle was by far the

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In his book on the 1900 Parisian Fair, Julian remarks: "Most of the artist who received commissions for the decoration of the exhibition had to glorify the workers, for the movement initiated by Napoleon III had become an act of faith: the workers were to take part in the Great Festival of Pro!,'Tess which their energies had made possible. [ ...] In every part of the exhibition were to be found representations of workmen, some in a realistic style as in the high reliefs of Guillot [ .] amI statues symbolizing the various trade corporations, such as the carter and the omnibus driver" (Julian 26). TIlese figures are reminiscent of Lange's own proletariat portraits. ..

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grandest and most sumptuous. Over fifty million visitors attended the Fair, a number equaling the attendance at the 1 967 Montreal Fair and surpassed only by the 64 million that visited the 1 970 Osaka Fair. Moreover, never before had a World's Fair spread itself out over so much territory. From the traditional site ofrhe Champ de Mars, which hosted the Palace of Electricity, the Fair spread across the river to include Trocadero, where the colonial pavilions were located. Moving east, the embankments of the Seine were also exploited, the most important exhibit there being the "Pavilions des puissances etrange res" on the right bank, between the Pont de I' Alma and the Pont des Invalides. Finally, the Fair occupied the Esplanade des Invalides and sprawled across the newly constructed Pont Alexandre III, to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, also built for this particular event. The monumental Porte Binet, the main entrance to the Fair, was located i n the southwest corner of La Place de la Concorde. An electric train and a moving walkway linked the two main axes of the Fair-the Champs de Mars and the Esplanade des Invalides. Given the scope of the event, it should corne as no surprise that the Fair found its way, albeit surreptitiously, into Zola's Travail. The points of convergence between the Exposition Universelle and Luc's ideal city are numerous. To begin with, as outlined above, the Fair constituted a true city within the city of Paris; in terms of the imagination, every effort was made to demarcate the '"real" Paris from the proper grounds of the exhibits, an effect created in part by the magical "Portes" that represented the thresholds of reality. As Pascal Ory has aptly noted: "La multiplication et la splendeur monumentale des entrees [...J appellent Ie passant sans defense, qui sent bien qu'apres les avoir franchies on n'est plus tout a fait dans son etat normal de petit rentier (probe) ou d'ouvrier (Iaborieux)" ( 1 28). Ory hints here at the utopian transfomlation operated by the mere fact of going through a gate; class distinctions dissolve as the renrier and the ouvrier forget their social positions. Similarly, Luc's experiment begins as a city within a city: HLuc crea son usine nouvelle qui donna naissancc it toute unc cite ouvricre. Lcs tcrrains s'etcndaicnt sur plus d'un kilometre carre, en bas de la rampe des monts Bleuses, une vaste lande [... J qui allait du parc de la Crecherie aux batiments entasses de l'Abime" (682). The World's Fair's contiguity with the real Paris is analogous here to Luc's utopia coexisting with the "naturalist" Abime. Once the Commune has conquered all of Beauclair, its divorce from any reality outside of it is underscored by the various news of wars and revolutions that leave the ideal city completely unscathed. Ragu reports on terrible strikes and riots that shook Germany, England and

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the United States (914); the three virtues that surround Luc-Josine, Sreurette, and Suzanne-recount a world in crisis, plagued by wars and revolution, And yet, none of these events intrude at any moment into the narrative of the triumphant Beauclair, The frontiers demar cating the utopia from the real are clearly traced by the text, just as the monumental entrances allow the visitors to suspend reality.64 At the threshold of the new century, electricity emerged as a possible solution to entropic decay. Already present in the elevators of the Eiffel Tower during the Exposition of 1 889 (Weber 7 1 ), electric power was reconfigured as a utopian panacea during the 1 900 World's Fair. Its ubiquitous presence was felt from the moment the visitor entered through the Porte Binet. An allegorical figure representing Electricity in the shape of a Byzantine Salammbo stood inside one of the niches in its rotunda. The Palace of Electricity, located in the Champs de Mars, with the Chateau d'Eau placed in front of it, was the piece de resistance of the Fair. Housing all the machinery that provided electric power to run the Fair, it was the very heart of this Exposition. Similarly, the functioning of Luc's anarchic commune i n Travai/ relies upon the many industrial practices based on electricity:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 153. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=153

[ ...] les applications [de ]'electricill�] etaient sans nombre, chaque jour naissaitun bienfait nouveau. [...] les transports, la locomotion, la simple circulation par les rues populeuses, se trouvaient de plus en plus facilites, grace a cette force donnee pour rien, appliquee a une infinite de vehicules, bicyclelles, petitcs voitures, chariots, trains de plusieurs wagons (950).

Visitors to the World's Fair would recognize in this description the Metropolitain, being inaugurated at the time of the Exposition Universelle, as well as the infamous trotloir rou/ant, literally a moving sidewalk that helped visitors ambulate in the Fair, which some claimed would become "I' Avenue de l'avenir" (Ory 128). Electricity flows freely in the cite ideale, as Ragu learns from Bonnaire: "Tu la [I'electricite] retrouveras partout, la grande et souveraine energie, sans laquelle tant de rapides progres n'auraient pu s'accomplir. Elle est

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A clear difference between thc two, however, is that the ideal city continues to expand while the World's Fair had stable frontiers. In fact, the utopia supplants the "reul" us it hypothetically conquers the whole world: "[ ...] c'etait encore, au-del a des chumps fertiles de la Roumagne, de I'uutre cote des monts Bleuses, la fedemtion prochaine des pcuples, I' unique peuple fmternel, I'humanitc remplissant enfin sa destinee de verite, de justice et de paix" (969). In this sense, Travail realizes Proudhon's coveted permanent fair.

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desormais l'unique force qui alimente nos machines" (920). Even the night spectacles that so amused visitors to the Fair's find their way into Beauclair. When Ragu leaves the commune at the end of Book III, he looks back over the city, as he dominates the landscape from atop a mountain. His exit recalls SOllvarine's parting in Germinal albeit in a utopian mode since violence is no longer a viable possibility. As night falls, the lamps in the city arc lit, producing a fairy-like atmosphere: "[ ... J sous cette douceur de 1a belle nuit de juin, 1a ville s'etendait, pareille a un autre ciel, fourmillante, clle aussi, de petits asrres sans nombre. C'etaient les milliers et les milliers de lampes eIectriques qui vcnaicnt de s'allumer" (942-43). In a phantas magorical shift, the army of men-"une armee noire, vengeresse" that appears at the end of Germinal is replaced here by an innocuous army of lamps. As stated in the previous section of this chapter, Zola's interest i n electric power transcends the merely decorative as it provides a solution to the irreconcilable nature of utopia and entropy. Electric power provides a short circuit between the utopian commune of Travail and the "real" Exposition Universelle. In fact, Zola included i n his Dossier Preparatoire for the novel (N. A. F. 10334, f. 2 1 0) an article entitled "A l'Exposition: Chez les electro-chimistes" written by Max de Nansouty and published on July 7t h of 1 900 in Le Temps. It should be noted that this article appeared well before Zola began to write the third book of the novel. thus allowing to establish a direct link between it and the portrayal of the technical objects depicted i n the anarchic commune. In the article, de Nansouty describes the triumph of electrochemical procedures in industrial manufacture: "On apen;oit deja la date prochaine OU toute une serie d'industries chimi ques seront enticrement absorbees par les proccdes elcctrochimiques bien plus puissants que les anciens proccdcs . . . ." The exhibit, housed

65 Williams emphasizes the mesmerizing qualities of electricity to the visitors of the

Fairs: "[ ... ] the advent of electrical power invested everyday life with fabulous qualities [... ] electricity created a fairyland environment, the sense of being, not in a distant place, but in a make-believe place where obedient genies leap to their master's command, where miracles of speed and motion arc wrought by the slightest gesture, where a landscape of glowing pleasure domes and twinkling lights stretches into infinity. Above all, the advent of large-scale city lighting by electrical power nurtured a collective sense of life in a dream world. [...] At the 1900 exposition electric:J1 lighting was used for the first time on a massive scale, to keep the fair open well into the night. Furthermore, the special lighting effects were stunning" (84-85).

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 155. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=155

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In the Palais de l'Electricite, showcased a specific type of oven i n which the electrochemical force was produced : "Le 'clou' de cette classe consiste dans Ie four electrique du maitre Moissan." The article concludes in a positive note, attributing to the ovens the power of making dreams a reality : "II est bien interessant, on en conviendra, de pouvoir contempler et meme voir fonctionner, a l'Exposition de 1900, les curieux appareils grace auxquels Ie reve devient ainsi realite." I n the following pages of the Dossier Preparatoire, Zola describes Jordan's invention, clearly referring to Moissan's electric ovens: "L'invention de Jordan porte done d'abord sur I'application du four electrique tel qu'il existe aujourd'hui a la fonte de fer" (N. A. F. 10334, f. 2 1 7). So taken was he by the electric ovens that Zola even sketches them out in folio 226. In a flight of fancy inspired by this invention, Zola attributes two more discoveries to Jordan-"Invente aussi la vie sans fin et Ie trottoir roulant?," the question mark nevertheless attenuating the dream of immortality and of the moving sidewalk of the Avenue de l'avenir. The architecture of the different buildings described in the novel also recalls certain structures of the World's Fair. Ever since the success of the Crystal Palace66 in the London Fair of 1 85 1 , the intelligibility of any exposition hinged on a principle of trans parencyY Though the World's Fair of 1 900 registered significant aesthetic changes when compared to its predecessors-notably on its adoption of a more decorative, rather than functional, Art Nouveau and neo rococo style68-the myth of transparency had hardly abated. -

66

The Crystal Palace, as Philippe Hamon has noted, had a great impact on aesthetic theory. He writes: "Le Crystal Palace de Paxton devicnt, pour longtemps, Ie modele absolu qui fascine, qui va foumir a la reflexion esthetique en general, mais aussi a la litterature, a la fois ses meaphores filees les plus recurrentes et ses bfitiments les plus frequemment mis en scene; serres, prismes, panoptiques, vitrines, passages, marquises et verrieres diverses" (72-3). 67 By transparency, I mean the will to maximize the visibility of objects (as in the World' s Fair) and people (as in Luc's Commune). 68 For more on this point, see in particular Rosalind Williams's fifth chapter, "Decorative Arts Reform and Democratic Consumption" in her Dream Worlds. In it, she states thaI, even though Art Nouveau advocated functionalism, the French take on it was more ornate than in other countries: "At the international exposition of 1 900 and even more at the exposition of design held in Turin i n 1 902, French models were criticizt:d for tht:ir overwrought omatt:ness in contmst to the rclativt: sobriety of German, Belgian, and Scottish examples" ( 169). Erik Mattie sees in the 1900 Fair a triumph of the artist of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts over the more technocratic engineers t

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The Grand Palais, for example, continues the nineteenth-century fascination with the plasticity of glass and iron in architecture, described as "a sort of railway station where masses of stone have been piled up to support [. . . ] a high, thin roof of glass" (Julian 43)." Furthermore, a house entirely made of glass was also exhibited during the Fair: "A I'exposition de 1900 les visiteurs pouvaient admirer et visiter une maison tout en verre, Ie 'Palais lumineux Ponsin'" (Hamon 93). As the very sign of modernity, Zola had been fascinated throughout his career by this type of glass and iron structures;70 they appear in the newly constructed Hailes of Le Ventre de Paris and in Mouret's department store of A u BOl1heur des Dames. Travail continues this tradition as the dark factory of l'Abime is juxtaposed with the luminous buildings of the ideal city: "Au sortir de PAbime noir, sale, poussiereux, dont les lourdes halles delabrees s'eclairaient a peine par d'etroits vitrages, c'etait un premier emerveillement que les halles legeres de la Crecherie, de fer et de bri ques, dans lesquelles de larges baies vi trees laissaient penetrer it flots I'air et Ie soleil [ . . ]" (682-3). These transparent buildings are the prototype of an architecture of exposition. Just as the Fair organizes space to maximize the visibility

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 156. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=156

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of the Ecole Polytechnique: "Whereas the Paris 1889 exhibition was a triumph for the engineer, the Beaux�Arts trained architect returned with a vengeance in 1 900" (103). The dcmocratic impulse inhcrent in the decorative movement described by Philippe Julian echoes Lange's own artistic principles: "This new enthusiasm [for artistic creation] was accompanied by the idea that the art of the future would be an art for all, not only replacing the clutter of fumirure in the apartments of the bourgeoisie, but bringing gaiety into the homes of the workers. [ ... ] The Fairy Electricity was allowing the arts to nourish, while steam, utilitarian and dirty, represented the materialism of the closing century" (99). 69 Others structures noted for the use of iron and glass were the "Salle des Fetes, with its dome of coloured glass resting on iron pillars, its frescoes glorifying labour" and the "Pavillion de I'Alimentation" housed under a "vast glass roor' (Julian 62). 70 In a series of articlcs published in the Russian based journal Le Me.Hager de ' ·Europe, Zola describes the Exposition Universelle of 1878 hosted in Paris as well. About the architecture of that Fair, he writes: "Nous sommes ici [ ... ] face a cette architecrure contemporaine dont fai parle et ou s'cxprime Ie style du XIXc sicclc, avec ses constructions audacieuses de fer et de fonte, si legeres et si solides en memc temps ... Rien ne peut ctre plus majestueux que ces gigantesques pavilions, qui rappell!.!nl des palais de fc!.!s petrifies par un coup de baguett!.!. Malgre moi, j!.! m'abime dans la reveric, devant ces moddcs de notre architecturc. II me scmble qu'ils resteront debout dix siec!es et etonnefOnt les generations futures" (Hemmings 145).

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o f objects,71 the new ateliers in Beauclair provide an ideal setting for Jordan's new electric gadgets. As explained in the previous section, the new machines are to be admired and contemplated as they take on more and more of the workers' burden. The exhibit quality of the machinery is highlighted when Morfain sees the new electrical ovens for the first time. Luc, who describes the new machines as mere toys, serves as the guide who shows Morfain around the glass-domed workshop---"'Sur quinze metres de long, sur cinq de large, la batterie des dix fours electriques, avec son trottoir roulant, tenait a I'aise, dans Ie grand hangar vitre, gai et luisant, qui I'abritait" (878). The setting exposes the machine as Luc explains the mechanism to Morfain, supplanting the various Hdescriptifs" that, according to Hamon, accompanied the exhibits at the World's Fair: "[ ... ] il lui expliqua Ie rendement. Ces joujoux-Ja, a deux cents kilogrammes de fonte chacun, toutes les cinq minutes, arrivaient ensemble it. un total de deux cent quarante tonnes par jour, en les faisant travailler seulement pendant dix heures" (877). This particular relationship to the machine-that of passive spectator-permeates all social relations in Beauclair, presented as a city museum, in which everything is exposed. Indeed, the inhabitants of the commune are constantly visible, on display, whether in the many matrimonial ceremonies or in the republican-like festivities honoring work. Furthennore, along with other characters, Luc constantly visits the many locations that compose the phalanstere; it i s curious that h e contemplates the unfolding of work without ever becoming an active participant in the life of the commune. Countless times, he is depicted as a passive spectator, a role that reaches its apogee at the end of the novel, when Luc has lost the ability to use his legs: "Seules, ses jambes s'Ctaient raidies, comme pour Ie clouer la, devant sa fenetre, en spectateur heureux, maintenant que sa ville etait fondee" (96 1 , emphasis added). This relation to the city is highlighted again in the fourth section of the last book, when Ragu pays a visit to

71 Philippe Hamon writes on this account: "Le visitcur d'exposition arpente un espace organise par l 'architeeture, ou Ie visible cst mis en scene, devicnt spectacle, cst rendu lisib1c par celie organisation architccturale mCme. D'un cote (l' Exposition) objets exemplaires, maquelles, plans ct /..:.corches dc machines, produits de rarl ou dc I industrie, se proposent, accompagnes de leurs descriptifs, objets rendus transparents, dans la tnlllsparence mcme des gmndes salles-serres des palais des expositions" (68). On this point, sec also Williams's description of the Fair in the third chapter of her Dream Worlds, especially pp. 58-59. '

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Beauclair after many years of having wandered through the world outside the commune. Bonnaire becomes Ragu's guide, taking him for a "ride" in his electric car (920) to show him the many pavilions that compose the city: "II [Bonnaire] fiait de bon ereur, it eel espoir de mettre it jamais les tl�nebres en fuite, pendant que 1a voiturette filair par les larges avenues, de son train si rapide et si doux" (920). The word "montrer" is used extensively in this chapter, thus accentuating the exhibitionist quality of the city. Their visit through Beauc1air takes them through a series of pavilions, just as if they were visiting the World's Fair. Ragu is taken to the agricultural pavilion: "un paradis de fertilite et de d61ices" (920); to the exhibits on chemistry and physics: "cette scrie de grands pavilions, les laboratoires de chimie et de physique;" and, to a prototype for a future house, "une de nos maisons nouvelles" (926). In the "Galerie des Machines," Ragu contemplates the new inventions:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 158. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=158

Ragu se promenaii, [ . . . ] [regardait} les dalles el les murs d'une nettele eclalanle, s'inleressanl aux machines, doni beaucoup lui elaienl inconnues. ( ... J II en elail qui avaient des jambes, des bnls, des pieds, des mains, pour marcher, pour cmbmsser, pour etrcindre et manier Ie metal, avec des doigts souples, agiles ct forts (928).

It is clear that the factory meets the museum in this passage, in which Ragu admires the machinery in a transparent building-"levant les yeux vers les hauts vitrages inondes de solei!." Furthermore, Ragu and Bonnaire visit the new co-op stores,-"d'immenses granges, d'im menses greniers, d'immenses salles de reserve, OU toute la production, toute la richesse de la Cite s'entassait" (928)-and then Langes stoneware factory, ending at the banquet in celebration of labor. Despite his constant "bad faith" criticisms of the commune, Ragu�s awe at the sights reproduce the role of passive spectator: "Bonnaire s'amusait de I'etonnement de Ragu, Ie promenant d'un train ralenti par les voies neuves de cette heureuse Cite du travail" (925). The commune, then, is presented not as a livable space, but rather as a museum organized to display its institutions and inhabitants. The World's Fair of 1 900 also presented a series of pavilions and rides that destabilized the notions of time and space. The exhibits from different foreign nations and the colonial showcase shortened geo graphical distance as the reconstruction of "Le Vieux Paris" provided a machine for time travel. Furthermore, the biggest attractions during the Fair were amusement park rides that simulated extraordinary voyages through time and space:

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Perhaps the most significant shared aspect of the attractions at this fair was the theme of travel, Of thirty-three major attractions, twenty-one involved dynamic illusions of voyage of some kind. Among the most stunning were the Cineomma aerial tour exhibition, the 'stereorama mouvanC that 'visited' Algiers, the Tmns Siberian Railway exhibition, and the 'globe celeste' (Garelick 307).

Paul Morand stresses the effect of the rides on the visitor when he writes i n his memoirs: " L'Exposition est tine confusion sans nom du temps et de I'espace. [... ] Je [ais mille voyages extraordinaires sans m e depiacer, comme des Esseintes" (87, 1 1 5).72 The deflation of subjectivity to that of passive spectator i n Beauclair is achieved through historical amnesia and the suspension of time and space. Many critics agree that Zola's Travail does not function as a narrative precisely because it abandons space and time as its organizing principles. Evenhuis criticizes the novel in the following terms: "[... ] utopianism may have literary implications: it is clear that a writer cannot step out of time and conflict and still be able to conceive a plot that lends itself to drama. Since a perfect society does not need to evolve and, in fact, has nothing to gain from change, utopian narrative favors static tableaux, or the evocation of ritual celebration ... The novelist who lingers overlong in utopia will realize, sooner or later, that he has completely suspended his plot" (234).73 Beauclair severs all ties with the outside world as it moves into a utopia: no-place. In a similar manner, the temporal indications that appear so frequently in the last part of the novel attest to the narrative's failure to organize textual material: "Pendant dix annees encore" (874); "II s'ccoula dix annces encore" (880); "Pendant dix annees encore" (909), etc. The vagueness of these tenns highlights an organic cycle which challenges chronological order and a teleological model of time: "[ ... ] the most virulent response of labor in Travail i s temporal chaos, a resurrection of a pre-historic past before capitalist

n

For a more detailed description of the rides at the World's Fair, consult Garelick, pp. 307-3 1 3 and Williams's Dream Worlds. especially pp.73-78. in the section entitled "Distant Visions. 73 As Speirs reminds her readers: [ . . . ] la structure temporelle de l'utopie est un present etemel parce qu'inchangeante et inchangee. Ainsi, 1cs habitants de I'utopie vivent dans un continuum spatio-temporel d'ou la hantise de la duree est bannie" (424, 1 977). See also Robert M. Viti's article, "As It Was in the Beginning? Time in Zola's Fec(Jlldi(e and T/'awII1," and Bagul!;�y's "Du recit polemi4Ul.:: au discoun; utopique: l'Evangile republicain de Zola." Meakin deems Travail "the story of the loss of the novel" ( 1 00). "

"

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time began" (Viti 1 16).74 Since time and space cease to function as narrative coordinates, the novel's cohesiveness relies on a montage of tableaux that depicts life in the commune. Here again, the Exposition Universelle serves as artistic model, the different sections of the third book united through juxtaposition rather than through intrigue and corresponding to the pavilions and showcases that arrest the visitor�s attention.75 As mirror images of each other, the anarchic commune of Beauc1air and the World's Fair of 1 900 share a decor of buildings and technological objects displayed in a city museum through a strategy of exposition that supplants the morc traditional narrative coordinates of time and space and reduces the individual to mere spectator. Furthermore, this comparison reveals an ideological tension between the utopian and the capitalist elements of the Exposition Universelle and Beauc1air.76 The anarchic commune of Beauclair is set up as a critically discursive space from which to judge the present state of society by didactically condemning its political and economic conditions. Moreover, the utopian mode allows for a radical questioning of the real and thus opens up the possibility for change. Garelick, for instance, argues that "naturalism is realism with its seams showing, its inner mechanisms exposed. [ ... J The experience of entering the very absorbing world of Zola's ROllgon-Macqllart series can be seen to comment upon and illuminate the experience of

74 B
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attending the Exposition Universelle" (296).77 ] would add that Zola's latter productions magnify the seams of reality by juxtaposing them with ideal worlds such as Luc's commune. By contrasting the "natu ralist" composition of the earlier part of Travail with the later socialist utopia, the techniques that render the former "reality" unconsciously intelligible slip into full consciousness, effectively destroying its mesmerizing hold. I n this way, the social conditions responsible for producing a certain reality are exposed, making it possible to effect change. For all its insistence on a rhetoric of transparency, however, Beau clair hides an insidious reality of political conformity and capitalist production disguised as utopia. The rituals celebrated in the commune, for instance, uphold the ideals of the Third Republic:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 161. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=161

Le code de vertus civiques qui prevaut a Beauclair ou, I' interet particulier se reconciliant avec l'interet general, tout citoyen participe et eollabore a l'exaltation de la ville et la nation, est un reve republicain. Les fetes, it la Crecherie, it la mairie, aux Combettes, ont I'atmosphere de celles donnees par les associations republicaines de l'epoque qui alliraient un grand concours de peuple en liesse. L'ideologie de la'icite qui domine Beauclair est un autre signe de l'adhesion de Zola a l'ideal H�publicain (Sergent 1 34).

Furthermore, very few indications in the text reveal the political structure that governs Beauclair. Though Luc's female companions share part of the power, they are relegated to traditional feminine con cerns, effectively excluding them from the Cite: "[... J elles formaient, a elles trois, une sorte de conseil, charge de discuter les questions graves qlli interessaiellt la femme, dans la Cite nouvelle" (884, emphasis added). The result is a totalitarian state where all power i s concentrated in the hands of the patriarch. The many rounds that Luc takes through Beauclair mimic Jerome Qurignon's-the original owner of the Abime--own surveillance of his property, clearly designating Luc as proprietor. Even more troubling, his commune bans any dissenting voice as it excises all blind spots from the transparent society. I n other words, the uniform surface of Beauclair's social space lacks a critical conscience to interrogate its very functioning. Only Ragu, through his short visit to Beauc1air at the end

77 By providing a realistic feeling while visiting the amusement rides in the World's

Fair through technical effects-what Garelick calls "technological realism" everyday reality comes itself under scrutiny.

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 162. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=162

of the novel, can fulfil this role, albeit in an ineffective way. He con stantly questions Bonnairc's happiness and points out the short comings of the commune, concluding that the ideal city is a prison: "Dis done, mon vieux, en font-jls, un sacre vacarme, avec leurs trom pettes, ces bougres-la! <;a doir etre bien embetant pour les gens qui n'aiment pas it etre reveilles en sursaut. Est-ce que, tous les matins, on vallS joue cette musique, dans votfe caserne" (916)? Ragu is presented as an example of "bad faith" and his questioning of Beauclair's values offers a glimpse of dissent, revealing possible fissures within an otherwise perfect society. In the end, however, Ragu is expunged from the narrative because he cannot be integrated into the ideal city. Any revolutionary potential within the utopia has been shut down as political conformity comes to exemplify good citizenship. Furthermore, the socialist dream of fraternal harmony through a society of artisans participates in an economy of mass consumption. The signs of promiscuous consumerism are present everywhere in Luc's commune, from the many automobiles that run through the streets of Beauclair (920) to the expensive gems and clothes that the inhabitants wear (925). Even the "gadget" society is already present, as inventors flood the market with machines that ease everyday life: I I suffisait de tourner des boutons, et la maison s'ec\airait, se chaufTait, la cuisine se faisait, les diverses machines de metier ou d'usage domestique se mellaient en marche. Toules sarles de petits mecanismes ingenieux se creaient de jour en jour, pour la bcsogne du menage, soulageanl les femmes, subsliruanl raction mecanique au Imvail manuel (950).

With their free time, the citizens of the commune are able to attend the many festivities held throughout the year; they are also transformed into the bourgeois ideal of the "rentier," able to lead a life of luxury without having to work. Bonnaire confesses to Ragu: "Non, non, je n'ai ete, je ne suis qu'un ouvrier. Mais c'est vrai pourtant, nous avons tous fait fortune, nOliS sommes lOllS des bourgeois" ( 9 1 2, emphasis added). He betrays the paternalism inherent in the utopian project; the wish-fantasy of destroying social divisions projects the bourgeois as its ultimate ideal. The text, however, disguises this ideal by positing the artisan as exemplary producer thus burying under a false consciousness the bourgeois ideology which underlies the commune. An untenable contradiction in Zola's text, production in Beauclair evolves into an artisan mode while the leisure industry begins to rely more heavily on the concentration of capital. The factory is replaced by home shops as the artisan atelier becomes the ideal working space:

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[. . .] un mouvement s'indiquait dans cette generation nouvelle, Ie petit travailleur

a domicile, libre, maitre de sa fabrication, en dehors des grands ateliers sociaux.

[ . ] C'etait Ie travail de$Ormais aise, pouv,mt etre exercc chez $Oi, proprement, sans fatigue; ,'ctait ehaque maison ehangee en un atelier de famille [ ] Ie travailleur entierement libre dans la ville libre (926). .

.

...

Economic transactions are realized between producers in a bartering system, thus by-passing the middleman (929) as the citizens of the conunune are transformed into "tout un peuple d'artisans" (955). The artisanal mode of production relies on the family as the core social unit working in artisan shops, effectively proposing an outdated mode of production incompatible with the consumer revolution character istic of the commune. Case notes this incongruity:

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Le probleme qui se pose est eelui-ei: commenl r/..:.concilier les progres techniques et industriels que decrit Zola avec l 'emiettemenl de la fabrication? C'est un mouvement qui ne semble guere possible dans la metallurgic et dans d'autres industries qui servent la eommunaute. D'ailleurs, tout un probleme de distribution et d'assemblage se pose et la liberte individuelle de travailler chez soi dans I'independance ne peut que detroire la solidarite communautaire (10 I).

The utopian mode glosses over these contradictions as it pushes the narrative out of the historical realities implicated in the new consumer revolution all the while falling prey to its ideology through false consciousness by projecting the artisan as the ideal producer yet maintaining the supremacy of the bourgeoisie. We may draw an analogy between Zola' s literary creations and the World's Fair of 1 900. The chiasmic relationship between these two structures serves to gauge the function of the World's Fair in fin de siecle France. Whereas utopian thought acted as a critical tool from which to evaluate the present state of society, the 1900 Exposition Universelle registers the colonization of this space by capitalist consumerism implied by the leisure industry: The emphasis [of the World's Fairs] gradually changed from instructing the visitor in the wonders of science and technology to entertaining him. [. .] More and more, consumer merchandise rather than productive tools was displayed. [. .] The 1 900 exposition incarnates [ ...] [a] new and decisive conjunction between the im(lginative desires and material ones, between dremns (lnd commerce, between events of collective consciousness and of economic fact (Williams 5960, 65). .

.

Just as the underside of Luc's commune reveals a drive towards consumption and political conformity, the 1900 World's Fair stands as the paragon of shifts that signal the triumph of a new economic

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reality. By co-opting the utopia and turning it into a fairy land, the capitalist mode of production neutralizes its revolutionary potential: The world exhibitions glorifY the exchange value of commodities. They create a framework in which commodities' intrinsic value is eclipsed. They open a phantasmagoria that people enter to be amused. The entertainment industry facilitates this by elevating people to the level of commodities. They submit to being manipulated while enjoying their alienation from themselves and others (Benjamin 1 52).

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Individuals-reduced to the role of passive spectators, flattened like the faux fa�ades and plaster of the World Fair's buildings-lose a critical tool from which to evaluate their own economic conditions as they participate in their own alienation. Faeed with the encroachment of modernity, Zola obviously proposes a criticism of existing society through the example of the ideal city in Travail. His project fails, however, as the critical tools which he uses become imbedded within the very paradigm that they try to dismantle.

Epilogue

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Zola' s Dream

The wave of terrorist attacks that began in 1 892 with Ravachol's bombings came to an abrupt end in 1 894, when, after the famous "Proc€�s des Trente," the jury acquitted most of the accused anarchists. I n a desperate attempt to halt anarchist activities, the French govern ment had launched an aggressive campaign against anarchism. The "lois sceierates," curtailing the freedom of the press, were voted on December 1 893 and July 1 894, effectively suspending the publication of many anarchist newspapers (Maitron 252, 1 975). The famous trial acccused well respected anarchist personalities, such as Felix Feneon and Jean Grave, under the auspices of the new laws which stipulated that any apologetic attitude towards violence was equivalent to the act itself: "Cette loi [du I I decembre 1 893], dirigee contre la liberte de l a presse, n e punit plus seulement, comme celie de 1 8 8 1 , l a provocation directc aux faits qualifies, mais clle frappe la provocation indirecte, c'cst-a-dire I'apologic" (Maitron 252, 1 975). Thenceforth, French anarchism adopted a more conciliatory tone as it vied for control of French unions. The "anarcho-syndicalist" movement, as it was known, clearly marked a new era in anarchist strategy as the party now sought to improve the workers' situation not through individual action, but by promoting the political organization of the proletariat: [...] I'annee 1 894 marque une dale dans I'histoire du mouvement anarchiste. Sans renoncer a leurs principes, les compagnons von! s'efTorcer, desonnais, de s'affinner par d'autres moyens. L'ere des attentats individuels a pris fin, celie des minorites agissant au sein des masses va commencer (Maitron 261, 1 975).

The disappearance of the violent anarchist from the political arena mirrors the evolution that we have traced in Zola's reuvre. Our study has taken us from the terrorist anarchist to the humanitarian refonner, from the class warfare fostered by the industrial revolution to the fraternal artisan commune, from a naturalist depiction of an elusive

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reality to a utopian writing fleeing the contingencies of the historical. I n this way, the three key concepts that we had identified in our introduction as pivotal to our study, anarchy, entropy and naturalism undergo significant revisions in Zola's career. The anarchist Souvarine in Germinal, with his apocalyptic visions and his missive of violence-"Oh! du sang [ ... 1 qu'cst-ce que 9a fait? la terre en a besoin" ( 1 342)-evolves into the utopian anarchist Luc Froment whose message of a society redeemed through love in Travail finally conquers Beauc1air-"Aussi [ ...J partie de I'experience de Fourier, 1a Cite nouvelle devait-elle [ ... ] avancer vers plus de liberte er [ ... J finir par les [the different sects of society] grouper tous en un peuple fraternel, n!concilie dans Ie commun ideal, dans Ie royaume du ciel mis entin sur la terre" (953). The character of Guillaume Froment i n Paris i s central to this evolution; starting out as an apostle of violence a la Souvarine C'On en arrive ainsi a constater que jamais un pas n'a pas ete fait, un progres accompli, sans I'aide d'epouvantables catastrophes" ( 1 322)), he ends up renouncing his fomler position to adopt a peaceful stand a la Luc Froment ("Mais quel aveuglement de croire que la destruction, que I'assassinat puisse etre un acte fecond [ ... ]! On arrive tout de suite au bout de la violence, et elle n'est bonne qu'a exasperer Ie sentiment de solidarite, meme chez ceux pour qui I'on tue" ( 1 5 65)). The redemption of the anarchist thus translates the wish-fantasy of a peaceful resolution to the class conflict. Furthermore, the effacement of the violent anarchist in Zola's ceuvre is accompanied by changes in the portrayal of industrial machinery. The menacing machines motored by steam power, such as the Voreux in Germinal, give way to the innocuous ovens that supply infinite amounts of electricity in Travail's Beauc1air. As the cornerstone of capitalist production that fosters wealth inequalities, the Voreux represents an unbalanced machine, devouring the human capital represented by the coal miners: "[ ... ] Ie Voreux, au fond de son trou, [... J s'ecrasait davantage, [ ... J l'air gene par sa digestion penible de chair humaine" ( 1 142). The social implications of these exploitative methods of production come to the fore in the first part of Travail, in which I' Abime, the counterpart to Ie Voreux, comes to be associated with Fernande's lust for wealth: "La etait Ie grand, I'unique crime, elle exigeait pour sa faim toujours croissante de plaisirs et de luxe des gains sans cesse accrus, une usine prospere, des centaines d'ouvriers petrissant i'acier, devant la bouche incendiee des fours" (71 5). The increase in disorder, or entropy, that results from this process eventually leads to the inevitable catastrophic death of these machines and, by extension, of the capitalist economy that

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depends on them. Jordan's electric ovens, on the contrary, by-pass the steam engine and theoretically annul the consequences of the second law of thermodynamics: "[ ... ] il [Jordan] avait pu transformer directement I'energie calorifique contenue dans Ie charbon, en energie electrique, sans passer par I'energie mecanique. C'etait la suppression de la chaudiere [ . ]" (944). To this new image of the machine corresponds a harmonious society in which social inequalities have been overcome. The shift from the steam engine to the electrical oven results in a new valorization of the artisan workshop, as the industrial centers which concentrate workers in Germinal are replaced by 8eauelair's labor organization which encourages work from home. The role of Paris as a link between these two images of the machine is once again crucial. The opening pages of the novel stress the thermodynamic model and its corollary of e1ass divisions: "Tout I'est de la ville, les quartiers de misere et de travail, semblaient submerges dans des fumees roussatres OU l'on devinait Ie souffle des chantiers et des usines tandis que, vers I' ouest, vers les quartiers de richesse et de jouissance, la debacle du brouillard s'eclairait, n'etait plus qu'un voile fin, immobile de vapeur" ( 1 1 75). The choice of words used to describe the "quartiers de misere et de travail," such as "fumees," "chantiers," and "usines," along with the reference to "vapeur," depicts an industrial landscape similar to that of Germinal. Guillaume's "petit moteur" discovered at the end of the novel, however, clearly foreshadows Jordan' s "petits fours electriques": "C'etait un prodige de legerete et de force, pesant un poids nul pour I'extreme energie qu'il developpait. Le fonctionnement en ctait d'une douceur parfaite, sans bruit, sans odeur" ( 1564). Similarly, Paris describes Guillaume's workshop as a model workspace; of his house in Montmartre, the narrator writes: "Toute la famille vivait dans cette salle, du matin au soir, en une tendre et etroite communaute de travail. Chacun s'y etait installe a sa guise, y avait sa place choisie, ou il pouvait s'isoler dans sa besogne" ( 1277). The conquest of entropy by the electrical model thus signals the hope of halting capitalist development and its exploitative industrial processes. Finally, the concept of entropy borrowed from such critics as Michel Serres, Christopher Prendergast, and David 8aguley, allowed us to trace the transformation of Zola's naturalist aesthetic, the third key term in our research, into a utopian mode of writing. Whereas in his realist period, the text risked losing the perspective of the reality it tried to seize, in his later novels, the harmonious society was best translated by a closed discourse that did not allow for narrative rupture. The descriptions of anarchist terrorist attacks at the end of .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 167. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=167

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Germinal or at the beginning of Paris offered examples of such instances of narrative instability. In the former novel, the destruction of the Voreux by Souvarine's sabotaging act had the further advantage of commingling the anarchist attentat with the industrial processes that, as seen above, were ruled by the second law of thermodynamics: "Au fond on ne distinguait plus qu'un gachis de pOlltres, de briques, de fer, de platre, d'affreux restes plies, enchevetres, salis, dans eet enragement de la catastrophe" (1 547). Rather than focusing the narrative, the list of nouns and adjectives disperses it into myriad details, effectively making it difficult to render reality. Furthermore, images of gluttony associated with the exploitative capitalist system abound in the final descriptions of the Voreux, underscoring the unbalanced system characteristic of the stearn engine: ��C)etait fini, la bete mauvaise, accroupie dans ce creux, gorgee de chair humaine, ne soumait plus de son haleine grosse et longue. Tout entier, Ie Voreux venait de couler a I 'abime" (1 547, emphasis added). Similarly, the explosion at the Duvillard's home in Paris conveys a comparable loss of perspective: "Une flamme d'enfer avait embrase un instant la rue, la poussiere et la fumee furent telles, que les quelques passants aveugles hurlerent d'epouvante" ( 1 253). Rather than a description of the scene, this passage reproduces the blindness provoked by the explosion that impedes to see "reality." The final scene of Paris confinns a change in Zola's writing from a naturalist depiction of reality to a utopian mode that flees any attempt at capturing the reaL The descriptions of a Paris in flux that had occupied the beginning part of the novel give way to a static vision of a city landscape no longer characterized by its urban qualities: "ll semblait qu'une meme poussee de vie, qu'une meme floraison avait recouvert la ville entiere, I'harmonisant, n'en faisant qu'un mem e champs sans bomes, couvert de la meme fecondite" ( 1 567). Nothing could be further from the initial description of the city in which Pierre Froment, from atop Montmartre, first identifies the factories that punctuate the horizon and the neighborhoods that reinforce class divisions; in this final description, both elcmcnts arc completely erased by the "champs sans bornes,"-which place the city in an agricultural rather than urban setting-fields that supposedly hannonize the different segments of the population. The central position of Paris is confirmed once again as the utopian tone of its ending is expanded in Travail. The absence of temporal and spatial references in the final book of that novel effectively divorce the narrative from reality. Furthennore, as demonstrated in the previous chapter, Travail's surreptitious

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references to the World's Fair of 1900 paradoxically identify it with a wish fantasy. Upon showing Beauclair to Ragu, Bonnaire surmises: "[ . . J la justice qu'il attendait, qu'il craignait de ne pas voir, etait done venue, [ ... J la justice d'homme libre a hom me libre, donnant a chacun sa part du bonheur legitime, apportant la verite, la fraternite et la paix" (935). The demise of naturalism thus registers a will to flee the contingencies of a historical reality associated with capitalist development as the narrative finds refuge in a utopian mode of writing. Given all of these transformations in Zola's corpus, his final novels might appear anachronistic at the political and aesthetic level. On the one hand, at the same time that Zola was romanticizing the workshop as an idyllic space, it was rapidly disappearing from the French economic landscape: "As the illegalist and terrorist side of anarchism was displaced by the syndicalist, the culture of bohemian individualism was supplanted by that of proletarian solidarity. Increasingly too the workshop was being supplanted by the factory i n the economic boom lasting from 1 896 to 1 9 1 4. The radicalism of the Parisian faubourgs was supplemented by that of industrial sub urbs" (Sonn 27, 1 989). The advent of mass consumption fueled by the nascent culture industry, as well as a more developed industrial sector, further eroded the artisan base, which in part explains the shift i n anarchist strategy at the end of the century. Rather than advocating the organization of the proletariat, however, Zola presents a narrative of social redemption through the efforts of the messianic Luc Froment. Furthermore, he launches a criticism of capitalism through a romantic version of anarchy incompatible with the forces of production depicted in Travail. Even though Luc Fromenfs commune is posited as a space of resistance, it pales in comparison to the more destructive means mobilized by the terrorist Souvarine. Moreover, as 1 have shown in the preceding chapter, the utopia itself becomes imbedded in the very system that it tries to criticize, effectively rendering it futile as subversive discourse. The backdrop of the World's Fair served to unmask the capitalist underside of Luc Fromenfs commune, reminiscent of Rimbaud's line in the poem "Solde:" "A vendre, I'anarchie pour les masses." In this regard, the importance of A u Bonheur des Dames to the later utopian novels cannot be neglected. Compared itself to a phalanstere, Octave Mouret's grand magasin curiously resembles Luc's utopian commune and the 1 900 Exposition Universelle in its ethos of exposition. For this reason, the World's Fair utopian aspirations of bettering humanity seemed doomed from the .

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 169. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=169

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start: by colonizing the dreams of refonn, capitalism recuperates this discourse as well. On the other hand, the closed utopian writing characteristic of the late Zola contrasts with the fragmented aesthetic espoused by modernist writers. In fact, if Zola's works erase the violent anarchist as they progress over time, the modernists incorporate him into their aesthetic practices. 1 Many cultural historians and literary critics, including Weir, Leighten, and Hamilton, have successfully argued that the terrorist strain of anarchy was absorbed by cultural practices.2 According to these critics, the emergence of the avant-garde in the 1 8905 owes much to this displacement ; "[ . . ] the failure of anarchism assured the success of modernism; that is, the politics of anarchism was transfornled into the culture of modernism by a number of artists who gave aesthetic expression to political principles" (Weir 1 58). The thrust of Weir's thesis lies in his assertion that '''anarchism succeeded culturally where it failed politically" (5). The disappearance of the terrorist anarchist, perhaps the most uncompromising critic of the bourgeoisie, signifies the loss of his revolutionary message as it was translated aesthetically by modernist fragmentation. The absorption of this more violent strain of anarchy by cultural mechanisms neutralizes its potential for change: '''[... ] the shift of anarchism into aesthetics must appear not as a transformation of politics but as a displacement: surely society is where anarchism belongs, not in some autonomous 'zone' of egoistic aesthetics" (Weir 267). Zola's evolution from the Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 170. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=170

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1 The eauses for the modernist turn arc varied and complex and it is beyond the scope of the present study to discuss this particular topic. Many critics, however, agrcc that modernism was a reaction to an advanced stage of capitalist production. See Peter Burger's analysis in the TheOlY of the Avant-Garde, who states that "the avant gardiste work of art presellts itself as the historically necessary expression of alienation in late-capitalist society" (85). Also, David Weir, in his reading of Franco Moretti's Signs Taken jor Wonder (pp. 166-167), explains: "Moretti argues that a 'structural homology' exists betwccn 'the specific social nature' of the capitalist crisis and 'the specific literary structure' of James Joyce's Ulysses and other works of canonical modernism. Because of the 'inability of Ihe market to assure society's organic functions,' culture seeks to compensate for the loss of organic illtegmtion with the hope of 'restoring a form to society'" ( 1 66). On the changes of the cultural marketplace, consult Hutton, especially p. 83. 2 See in parlicular Leighten's Re-Orderillg fhe Universe, Hamilton's last chapter "Convulsive Beauty: Anarchism aml lhe A vallI-Garde" in her "Dynamite: Anarchy as Modernist Aesthetic" and Weir's Anarchy and CU/lure, especially Chapter 5, "Aesthetics: From Politics to Culture."

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realist paradigm to the utopian mode and his later critiques of capitalism through a romanticized anarchic commune seem incongruous with the political, economic and aesthetic developments of the turn of the century. In this sense, Zola's naturalist period is more akin to modernism than his later productions. The salient characteristic of these explosive narratives is to question their representative strategies to depict the real, as in the moments of entropy identified in this study, and thus naturalism foreshadows the modernist aesthetic: "In the naturalistic absorption in detail and the associated loss of an encompassing perspective, we have the intimation of the dissolution of bourgeois realism, which reaches its climax in the avant-garde" (Bi.irger 85). The word "dissolution" used by BUrger to describe the demise of the realist paradigm reminds the reader of Prendergast's own thermo dynamic analysis of Zola's writing as too detailed and, therefore, elusive: "[ ... ] the more detailed [ ... ] the descriptions become, the more difficult they are to visualize or to hold within a stable visual frame [ . . ]" (71). Burger's argument, furthermore, has the advantage of succinctly presenting the link between naturalism and modernism. The anarchist was central to the final dissolution of realism via two important features that were to become the hallmark of the modernist aesthetic: the fetishism of the fragment and the questioning of language's ability to denote i n general. On the one hand, anarchism provides an interesting instance of plenitude between content and form. On the other hand, as Eisenzweig has argued, it carries resistance to representational strategies to its utmost limits, refusing to be inscribed by symbolic constraints which are exposed as hegemonic in the last instance (Eisenzweig 281). I n Redding's analysis of Conrad's The Secret Agent ( 1 907), these two strands corne to the fore:

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 171. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=171

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What we are approaching here [in this particular novel] is a juncture wherein a modernist sensibility, which has cvolved in order to face and contain the explosive threat figured by anarchist terror, increasingly mimics that condition. As Jameson has argued, the political, with all its attendant horrors, is driven deep into the cuittlral unconscious, but its extreme configurations, as embodied in characters such as Ossipon, Winnie, and Stevie, return as a kind of texttlal disorientation that will undermine the very truth claims that modem fiction has taken as its starting point. The foreignness and unreliability of language itself explodes the attempted unity of Conrad's novels (123, 1998).

would apply this same framework to my explosive narratives, situating the modernist tum 20 years before the publication of The Secret Agent. The terror to be contained becomes the foml that

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 172. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=172

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destabilizes the text's ability to function at a symbolic level as it undermines its own foundation. Anarchism questioned the search for origins as political dubious; the very name of the movement carries this meaning as "arche" refers to "origin" in Greek (Weir 1 1 ). In a similar vein, I will resist closure to the present investigation as any attempt to circumscribe my argument will inevitably lead me to the very gambits that the terrorist bomb exposes as representational fallacies. The conclusions sketched out above should be considered as an opening onto future studies, which could take various paths. To begin with, the scope of the study could be enlarged to include other political novels written by Zola. As stated in the introduction to this study, I locate my work within the growing field that analyzes the intersections between political anarchy and cultural representations. I hope to have found a new angle to this particular question by displacing the line of inquiry from modernism to the naturalist novel. The three novels treated in this study form an extremely coherent set that deal specifically with Zola's anarchist characters. There are, however, other characters in Les Rougon Macquart that have anarchist overtones. As early as Le Ventre de Paris, the third novel in the series, the revolutionary Charvet speaks with the violence of Souvarine: "11 faudra faire table rase, disait Charvet de son ton bref, comme s'il eut donne un coup de hache. Le tronc est pourri, on doit I'abattre" (Zola, Bibliothcque de la Plciade I, 747). Furthermore, Henri Mitterand has suggested that the character of Clemence in that particular novel resembles the famous Red Virgin, Louise Michel (See Zola, Le Ventre de Paris, Paris: Folio Classique, 1964, p, 466, footnote #34). Similarly, the conspiring Italians in Son Excellence Eugene Rougon as well as the reference to a worker's ideal city in that particular novel offer insights into earlier versions of anarchy and utopia in Zola's works. Moreover, the nihilist plays an important role in several novels among which La Joie de Vivre with the character of Lazare is probably the most important. The relationship between nihilism and anarchism, which was not treated i n this study, deserves more attention. The antecedents of Lue Froment in Les Rougon-Macquart series and Les Trois Villes also need to be more carefully traced.3 [n this particular character, Zola combines features of the energetic entrepreneur-such as Octave Mouret in A u

3

For an excellent summary on the thematic of the failed revolutionary in Zola's corpus, I refer my readers to Aimc Guedj's article, "Les Revolutionnaires de Zola."

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SOl/heur des Dames and Saccard in La Curee and L Argent-and the idealistic though impotent revolutionary-like Sigismond in L 'Argent and Etienne in Germinal.4 The hybrid conjunction of a capitalist vision with reformist aspirations has clear roots in Zola's earlier writings. Finally, a further study on Zola's politics would need to include La Debiicle, in which images of Paris set ablaze by communards realize Souvarine's apocalyptic prophecies and translate the bourgeoisie's phantasms of revolution as depicted in Germinal. Treating these novels in a future study would help to trace not only the influence of anarchy in other works, but also its relationship to other ideological currents, such as social Darwinism and Marxism. Second, the role of anarchy in French literature specifically needs further treatment. Though Sonn's Anarchism and Cultural Politics in Fin de Sixle i Frallce and Herbert's The Artist and Social Reform are both excellent introductions to the field, the former lacks a more systematic study of the literary question whereas the latter, published in 1 9 6 1 , is already dated.5 The anarchist character was a recurrent stock figure not only in Zola's novels, but in a wide array of works, from Mauclair's Le Solei! des morts to Barres's L 'Ennemi des lois.6 Furthermore, anarchism was influential in the French stage, especially through Lugne-Poe's Theatre de I'CEuvre, the main venue for symbolist drama. Naturalist plays also treated the question as Octave Mirbeau and Zola both wrote dramatic works with anarchist characters in them. Finally, self-proclaimed anarchist novelists such as Valles, Darien, and Mirbeau have not been treated with the serious ness they deserve. The field of anarchy and literature in France is vast and by extending the present study into other genres and including

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 173. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=173

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4 As the reader recalls,

Sigismond, a Marxist, is described as an impotent and sickly character who looks at the world through a window. His theories of a collectivist state and his emphasis on love as the basis for social organization foreshadows Lue's anarchic commune. Sigismond says al one point in the novel: "II faut des annees, des annees. Sait-on mcme si jamais l'amour des autres aura en soi assez de vigueur pour remplacer l'egolsme, dons l'organisation socialc ... " (201a, L 'Argent in Les Rougoll M(lcqu(ll't, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, 285). 5 In these regards Alain Pessin and Patrice Terrone's Lilteratllre et (II/archie o ffers a renewal of this particular question. 6 For a good summary of anarchist characters in French novels, consult Rene Johannet's L 'Ellolution dll roll1(1l1 social (Ill XIXe siede, especially the chapter entitled "Le roman socialiste et anarchiste," pp. 58-7 1 . Johannet's views are opposed to those of anarchy and his aversion to Zola is not subtly stated in his analysis. ,

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 174. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=174

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other novelists, it stands to gain in depth by providing a fuller picture of this complex relationship. Finally, I have found throughout my research that, since anarchy was an important movement in various countries, a comparative element would also be enlightening. Both David Weir's Anarchy and Culture and Hamilton' s "Dynamite: Anarchy as Modernist Aesthetic" have traced the influence of anarchy in Russian, German, American, Spanish, French, and British literary and artistic scenes. Their inadequate treatment of the pre-modernist authors that deal with anarchy, such as Turgenev and Henry James, are partly responsible for the directions of my own research. Com parative studies, especially in the genre of the novel, are thus needed; it would include such literary figures as Upton Sinclair, Frank Harris and G. K. Chesterton. Henry James's Princess Casamassima in particular offers many points of comparison with Zola's own portrayals of anarchy, a logical conjunction when recalled that Henry James wrote several articles on Zola and called himself a "naturalist" while writing this novel (Weir 63). His depiction of fashionable society in London smitten by the fad of anarchy as well as his portrayal of the failed revolutionary Hyacinth recall many of the elements present in both Germinal and Paris. Similarly, Conrad's elusive narrative of the anarchist plot to destroy the Greenwich Observatory in The Secret Agent provides an interesting sequel to Zola's Paris. The explosion that shatters the body of Stevie, the mentally challenged revolutionary in the novel, also destroys the narrative sequence of events in a manner akin to the entropy identified in Zola's own writing. The legacy of anarchy is thus quite rich, as can be surmised from the many possible areas into which the present study could extend. Its mark on the avant-garde movements is not negligible and many critics have identified the tics that unite anarchy to this artistic rupture, from the Symbolists through the Surrealists, and passing through the Cubists, the Dadaists and the Futurists. Furthermore, some identify the fragmentary tendencies in post-modem society as homologous to anarchist ideals: " [.. . ] the idea of culture today includes all the variety, multiplicity, and freedom of human expression that anarchism encouraged in the past [ .. . J the well-known commodification of culture in late capitalist society provides the perfect context for an apolitical ideology of anarchism that sets aesthetic satisfaction ahead of social reformation" (Weir 259-262). To draw this analogy is ideologically deceitful, however, since it erases the anarchist ' s posi tion against capitalist structures embodied in either the romantic utopian strain or the position of the uncompromising terrorist. In so doing, Weir

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 175. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=175

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commits the same errors of nineteenth century aesthetes who banished the social question from anarchism. The internet has not fulfilled (and, I predict, will not) a revolutionary role akin to that of an anarchist fragmented society; it has become instead a powerful tool to further the gains of the consumer revolution. In this sense, it mimics the World's Fair of 1 900, posing as a space for utopian aspirations but advancing a more ominous ideology. At the dawn of our twenty-first century, the ghosts of terrorism have not been exorcised: they haunt our memories of September 1 1 th, and new incarnations appear in the wave of university and school shootings, the possibility of bioterrorism, and the virtual horror of cyberterrorism. The oxymoronic goal of the War on Terror, with its appendant Patriot Act reminiscent in some ways of the Hlois scelerates," demonstrate without a doubt the ways in which power exploits terror so as to further cast its net of surveillance. Furthermore, much in the same way as newspapers during the Belle Epoque benefited financially by reporting on the anarchist auentats, the media fuels the frenzy by bombarding us with breaking news of impending catastrophes, linking consumerism, spectacle and terrorism. At the beginning of this study, we defined the void left behind by the anarchist's bomb as a sign of the limits of language, exposing its deficiencies, detonating its denotative power. The vacuum left behind is filled with the propaganda by the deed, displacing meaning into action, throwing a bomb becoming akin to making a statement. This extreme solution to a linguistic conundrum had another face, a mask that eventually Zola wore and perhaps is an avatar of the terrorist. Eisenzweig proposes that the intellectual and the anarchists are closely related via the notion of action as linguistically performative. This connection is represented in Paris by the anarchist Victor Mathis who throws the bomb that explodes in the symbolically named Cafe de l'Univers. Zola writes: "II [Victor Mathis] etait Ie pur destructeur, 1e th60ricien de la destruction, l 'intellectuel d'energie et de sang-froid qui mettait I'effort de son cerveau cultive it raisonner Ie meurtre, it vouloir cn fairc I'instrumcnt dc revolution socialc. Et un poetc encore, un visionnaire... " ( 1 550, emphasis added). Victor Mathis, or an intellectual terrorist. I want to end this study with a reflection on this particular angle of the terrorist, one who choses to throw bombs in the temples of symbols. Priscilla Ferguson has suggested that Zola's role during the Dreyfus Affair-which has been identified as the moment in which the modem intellectual was born-was actually rehearsed beforehand in the novel Paris: "Derriere la figure de I'intellectuel qui se profile

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dans Paris, Zola s'essaie au role qu'il jouera avec tant d'eclat quelques mois seulerncnt apres avoir termine Ie roman" (276, 1 998). Ferguson is here thinking of Bertheroy as a model rather than Mathis as she concludes that the intellecrual is rather a peaceful endorser of change through the evolution of science that speaks from a depoliticized space. However, the terrorist lurks behind the pacifist and "J'accuse" could be construed as Zola's own propaganda by the deed where the repeated use of "j 'accuse" could be seen as an austinian performative, the accusation act being embedded in the very words that accuse. In fact, Zola will describe "J'accuse" using words drawn from the register of an anarchist attack: "[J'accuse est] un moyen n!volutionnaire pour hater I'explosion de la verite et de la justice. Je n'ai qu'une passion, celie de la lumiere [ . . . r' (quoted in Ferguson, 286, 1 998). The image advanced here is not that of a peaceful revolutionary, but rather that of the terrorist trying to change the world through violent means, culminating in the blinding light of the explosion. The revolutinary content of "J'accuse" is a posteriori confirmed by the rapprochement it produced between Zola and anarchist circles. As Frigerio reminds us, "Le grand coup porte au guepier institutionnel fait I'effet, du point de vue anarchiste, d'un revelateur qui expose publiquement la bassesse et l'injustice du pouvoir. [ . ] C'est a ce moment que commence a se dessiner en filigrane, mais de plus en plus nettement, I'image d'un Zola anarchiste qui s'ignore" (27-28). It would be difficult to speculate how far this complicity would have advanced since Zola's life was cut short on September 28th, 1 902, when he died from carbon monoxide poisoning, perhaps the result of a terrorist act itself. At the time, Zola was writing the preparatory notes for the last novel in the Quatre Evangiles tetralogy, Justice. According to Carmen Mayer-Robin, this novel was intended to be "Zola's treatise on a united Humanity without borders" (138) whose goal would be "to realize global disarmament and world peace while promoting a kind of proto-globalization ... which by the end of the century came to be associated with anti-impcrialism" ( 1 35). Thc utopian overtones that link this outline to the other novels in the series arc patent, even if its aspirations seem congruent with our own battles. Faced with the void of language, Zola's flight into utopia could be considered a coping mechanism to control an evanescent reality though this strategy succumbs to an unconscious political complicity with consumerism, as argued in the last chapter. However, to reconfigure the utopian vision as terrorist liberates the former and replaces it within a revolutionary tradition. The dreams and night-

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mares of the nineteenth century have shaped for better or for worse our own historical reality. Zola's vision turned out to be prophetic as the World Wars announced in Travail resemble the history of the last century. We can only hope then that the dreams evoked in Justice will ultimately prefigure the possibilities of our own destinies in the twenty-first century.

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 178. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=178

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Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 188. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=188

Bibliography

191

Zola, Emile. Carnets d 'enquetes: Vne ethnographie inedite de la France. Ed. Henri Mitterand. Paris: Librairie Pion, 1986. -. Correspolldallce V: 1884-1886. Ed. B. H. Bakker. Montreal: Les Presses de I'Universite de Montreal, 1 985. -. Correspolldallce X: 1899-1902. Ed. B. H. Bakker. Montreal: Les Presses de l'Universite de Montreal, 1995. -. "La Geologie et l'histoire." Mes haines, fEuvres Completes Vol. X Paris: Cercle du Livre Precieux, 1 966. 99-104. -. fEuvres completes. Ed. Henri Mitterand. 1 5 vols. Paris: Cercle du Livre Precieux, 1 966-69. -. Paris. fEuvres completes. Vol. VII. Ed. Henri Mitterand. Paris: Cercle du Livre Precieux, 1966. -. Paris. Ed. Jacques Noiray. Paris: Gallimard Folio Classique, 2002. -. "Proudhon et Courbet." Mes haines, fEuvres Completes Vol. X Paris: Cercle du Livre Precieux, 1 966. 35-46. -. "La Republique en Russie." Vne Campagne, fEllvres Completes. Vol. XIV. Paris: Cercle du Livre Precieux, 1966. 562-567. -, Le Roman experimental. Paris: Bibliotheque-Charpentier, 1 9 1 3 . -. Les Rougon-Macquart: Histoire llaturelle et sociale d'ulle famille SOliS Ie Second Empire. 5 vols. Paris: Bib1iotheque de la Pleiade, 1963-1967. -. Travail. fEllvres completes. Vol. Vlli. Ed. Henri Mitterand. Pa ris: Cercle du Livre Precieux, 1966. -, Therese Raquin. Paris: Pocket, 1 99 1 .

Index

Alexander 11 (Tsar) ; assassination of, 24, 35n4, 37n8, 50. See also Zola, Emile; "La Republique en

Russie"

anarchy;

and

the

75-76;

and

anarcho-

syndicalist movement, 167; au salon,

la

Bande

artisans: and anarchy, 1 5- 1 6, 2224; anti-urban stance of, 77; i n Montmartre, 76-77, 1 0 1 Bagu1ey, David,

1 8, 27, 28-30,

3 9 n 1 3 , 46-47, 49n27,

1 5 , 1 7 n 1 2 , 24-25, 27, 30, 32,

1 1 3n 1 2 , 1 1 5 , 1 6 1 , 1 69

86, 88, 90-92, 95-96, 99n29, 1 0 1 , 1 05n33, 1 1 5, 1 22n24, 1 3 2 -

of

individual anarc/lists

Noire, 34n3; and bombs, 9- 1 3 , 34n3, 37n8, 49, 6 1 , 72, 8 1 , 84,

1 1 0- 1 1 ,

Bakunin, Mikhail, 24, 37n9, 39, 48 Barres, Maurice, 68, 76, 1 75

34, 167, 174; definition of, 22-

Baudelaire, Charles, 94

24; and dynamite,

Becker, Colette, 34n 1 , 34n3, 3 7 ,

I I , 34n3,

37n8, 6 1 , 88, 105033; and I'Ere des Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 189. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=189

pia; Zola, Emile; and names

attentats,

87n2 1 , 88,

1 1-13,

1 67,

72-75,

1 77; and les

lois scelerates, 40, 88, 167, 177; and

the

Lyon

silk

workers,

23n23; and the press, 3 1 , 77,

38012, 39, 47, 48025, 52n33 Benjamin,

Walter,

1 52,

1 53 ,

1 62n76, 1 65 Brooks, Peter, 27, 1 34, 1 37n42 Brousse, Paul, 34 Brunetiere, Ferdinand, 68-69

88-90, 149n58, 168, 1 7 7 ; and the Proces des Trente, 40, 1 67;

capitalism, 2 1 -24, 8 1 , 88-89, 90,

and propaganda by the deed,

1 0 1 -2; and entropy, 25-26, 1 68-

1 1 , 1 4 - 1 6 , 22-25, 35n4, 39, 48,

9; and the leisure industry, 1 0 1 ,

59,

romantic

1 04-5, 149n57, 163, 1 65, 1 7 1 ,

elements of, 2 1 , 23, 77, 106,

90,

133,

1 7 6 ; and narrative, 1 7 , 86, 1 70-

1 7 1 -72, 1 76; and socialism, 14,

2; and utopia, 1 1 6 , 1 52, 1 62,

45, 571138, 87n2 1 ; and terror

1 7 1 . See a/so machines; upper

ism, 9- 1 3 ,

177;

1 5 - 16,

1 7n 1 2,

18,

class

24-25, 30, 3 2 , 45-46, 70-72, 8 1 ,

Carnot, Sadi (Engineer), 25

84, 86, 88, 1 0 1 , 105, 129, 132-

Carnot, Sadi (President), I I , 1 3

34,

Chesterton, G. K., 1 7 , 1 76

167,

174,

modernism;

177. See also

natumlism;

Neo

Commune, Paris, 3 3 , 47, 52-53,

Impressionism; revolution; uto-

5 5 , 76, 86, 96, 1 00. See also

194

Explosive narratives

Montmartre;

Zola,

Emile:

Godin, Jean-Baptiste Andre, 1 1 4, 116

Travail Comte, Auguste, 73, 80-8 1 , 9 1

Grave, Jean, 16, 1 26-28, 1 49n58.

Conrad, Joseph, 1 7 , 1 73, 1 76

See also anarchy: Proces des

Courbct, Gustave,

Trente

Zola,

Emile:

19. See also "Proudhotl

et

Guesde, Jules, 34, 73. See also Marx, Karl

Combet" Darien, Georges, 1 7 5

Harris, Frank, 1 7 6 Henry, Emile, 1 2 - 1 3 , 1 9 n 1 7 . See

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1 7 Dreyfus Affair, 69, 70n6,

1 77.

See also Zola, Emile: "J'ae euse!"

also Zola, Emile: Paris Herbert,

Eugenia

W.,

1 6n 10,

1 6n 1 1 , 45n19, 1 49n58, 175 Hugo, Victor, 33, 7 1 , 106, 1 1 2

Drumont, Edouard, 88 Eisenzweig, Uri,

1 1 - 1 3,

17-19,

24-25, 46, 72, 8 1 , 173, 1 77 electricity, 145, 1 55 . See also ell

James,

Henry, 1 7 6 ; and The Prillcess Casamassima, 1 7 , 1 7 6

Jaures, Jean, 1 1 0, 120, 1 25n29

tropy; machines; World's Fair of 1 900; lola, Emile: Travail entropy, 1 8 , 25-27, 122, 1 69; and

Franyois

Claudius.

See Ravachol

58,

Kropotkin, Peter, 1 6, 22n22; and

1 42, 1 68; and electricity, 1 1 6,

Social Darwinism, 20n 1 9 . See

140,

also Zola, Emile: Paris, and Travail

capitalist production, 143,

146,

25,

150,

155-56,

169; and naturalism, 25-27, 303 1 , 58, 6 1 , 82, Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 190. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=190

Koenigstein,

1 67-68,

Germillal,

173,

1 7 6 ; and violence, 60, 1 0 1 , 103,

Laveleye, Emile de, 38-39, 48

1 15

LeBlond-Zola, Denise, 1 5 1

Exposition

Universelle.

See

Lombroso, Cesar, 5 1 n3 1 Lugm!-Poe, Aun!lian-Marie, 1 75

World's Fair Familistere de Guise. See Godin,

machines: and capitalism, 23, 40, 60, 85-86, 90, 102, 104, 1 63-

Jean-Baptiste Andre Feneen, Felix: and Neo-Impres

64;

and

electricity,

103- 1 04,

sionism, 1 5- 1 6. See also anar

1 4 1 -45,

chy: Proces des Trente

and narration, 1 3 7n42; Paris as,

Ferguson,

Priscilla,

70n6,

71,

Madame BOVGlY, 1 9 Charles,

1 1 5, 1 52-53,

1 7 1 . See also Zola, Emile: Pa

ris and Travail

1 5 8-59,

1 68-69;

7 1 ; society as, 145-47; and ther modynamics, 25-27,

105n32, 1 77-78 Flaubert, Gustave, 1 8 n 1 6, 78; and Fourier,

1 55,

1 3 7-38,

1 4 1 -45,

1 0 3 - 1 04,

1 68-69.

See also Noiray, Jacques; World's Fair of 1 900 MacMahon, Marshal, 3 3

1 95

Index Maitron, Jean, 22n20, 34n2, 34n3, 75n 1 1 , 76n12, 87-8, 1 6 7

Zola, Emile: "La Republique e n Russie"

Marx, Karl, 23n24, I 74n4, 1 75;

Noiray, Jacques: and analysis of

and Guesde, Jules, 34; and the

machines,

International,

1 44-45. See also Zola, Emile:

1 53. See aiso Zola, Emile: Germinal, Paris, and Travail

Emile:

Henri. See Zola, Germinal, Paris, and

modernism,

1 1 - 1 2,

14-16,

172;

and anarchy, 14, 20-2 1 , 25, 46,

1 72-74;

and

naturalism,

14n5, 1 7, 25, 27, 173-74. See

also

(city),

revolution;

Symbolism;

utopia Montmartre. See Commune, Pa ris; Paris (city); Zola, Emile:

Paris More, Thomas, 1 1 4 Musee Gn!vin, 3 1 n33

67,

82;

and

sentations of, 27, 58, 68n3, 7 1 72, 82n 1 7, 90-95, 105-6, 1 70; 90, 1 69-70; and revolution, 50, 63,

72,

76-77,

96,

1 05n32,

105n33, 1 7 1 ; terrorist attacks in, 1 2 - 1 3 , 24, 7 1 , 74, 1 75; and the World's Fair of 1 900, 1 1 6,

1 5 1 - 1 65. See also Zola, Emile: Paris Phalanstere. See Fourier; Godin; Zola, Emile: Travail Prendergast, Ch ristopher, 27, 58, 6 1 , 82n17, 106, 169, 1 73 Proudhon,

Napoleon I I I . See Second Empire; naruralism: and anarchy,

Pierre-Joseph:

federation,

16,

and

22-23, 3 8n l l ,

127, 128n34; and Dll principe

Zola, Emile: Germinal Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 191. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=191

65,

Montmartre, 50, 65, 70, 76-77,

Travail

96,

1 0 3- 1 04,

Haussmann, 83; literary repre

Mirbeau, Octave, 1 7 5 Mitterand,

71,

Paris and Travail Paris

Mauclair, Camille, 1 7 5

26,

1 7- 1 9,

25, 95; critiques of, 33, 68-69;

de I 'art et sa destination so ciale, 1 9 , 29, 1 1 3- 1 4, 1 50; and

definition of, 1 6 n I I , 28-3 1 , 36, 40, 43, 46, 1 1 2- 13, 1 62; and

tuelle," 1 52, 1 54n64. See also

"Projet

d'exposition

politics, 35-36, 46; relationship

Zola,

to realism, 1 9n 1 8, 28, 1 62; and

Courber"; Germinal, Paris, and

utopia, 1 6, 32, 36, 6 1 -63, 1 04,

Travail

1 0 9- 1 1 6 , 1 36, 1 3 9 , 148, modernism;

"Proudhon

et

1 50-

5 1 , 154, 1 6 1 , 1 67-1 78. See also entropy;

Emile :

perpe

revolu

Qllatre

Evallgiles.

See

Zola,

Emile

tion; Zola, Emile

Neo-I mpress io nism,

1 5- 1 6,

Ravachol, 12, 74, 8 1 , 105n33, 1 6 7

149n58. See also Feneon, Felix;

realism. See naruralism.

Herbert, Eugenia W.

revolution : and anarchy, 1 3 - 1 4,

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 24

1 9-20, 24, 30-32, 36, 38n 1 1 ,

Nihilism,

57, 6 1 , 95, 1 05n33, 1 3 1 , 1 72 ;

24, 48n24,

174.

See

also Alexander 11; Turguenev;

and cataclysm, 4 5 , 50-53, 59,

196

Explosive narratives

82n17, 89, 99, 132-33, 136-38;

Tailhade, Laurent, 1 3

consumer, 1 64, 1 76; of 1848, 23n24; and evolution, 62, 106,

terrorism. See anarchy; September I l lh

1 24,

thermodynamics.

128n33;

French

IUlian,

26n28,

53,

99n29;

industrial,

Revo·

55,

86,

10I ,

1 04,

1 1 9, 168; and modernism, 2 1 ; and naturalism, 1 7 , 1 8-20, 36,

entropy;

See

machines; utopia Thiers, Adolphe, 33, 76-77 Third Republic, 1 4 - 1 5 , 3 1 , 33-34, 67-68, 76, 1 1 1 - 1 2 , 1 6 2

39; and utopia, 96,

106-107,

Trois Villes. See Zola, Emile

1 1 5,

and

Turgenev, Ivan Sergeyevich, 1 7,

1 54,

163-65;

the

working class, 59-60, 63, 85,

37n8. See also Nihilism

1 00, 146. See also Commune, Paris; Paris (city); upper class;

upper class: and capitalism, 20, 23n24, 39-4 1 ,

Zola, Emile Rimbaud, Arthur, 1 5n8, 33, 1 7 1

Rougoll-Macquart.

Zola,

See

Emile

working class, 40, 50, 84, 1 1 3, 120, 1 35, 138, 146; and fear of revolution,

Saint-Simon,

Claude Henri de:

36,

45,

53,

124,

1 3 3 -34, 1 7 5 ; opposition to, 1 4 -

and the World's Fair, 43, 1 52-

1 5, 1 9-20, 3 1 , 1 72-173; Zola's

53, 1 7 0

critique of, 39-45, 69, 8 1 -86,

Second

Empire,

censorship,

67-68;

19n 1 8.

and

See

also

Zola, Emile.

September 1 1 th: terrorist attacks

90, 1 14. See also Zola, Emile:

Germinal, Paris, and Travail utopia: and anarchy, 2 1 -24, 32, 6 1 -63,

1 04,

modernism,

of, 9- 1 1 , 70-7 1 , 177 Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 192. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=192

102; definition

of, 35n5; and exploitation of the

109, 21,

1 1 5;

and

1 7 1 -72;

and

Serres, Michel, 26, 1 37n42, 169

thermodynamics, 1 03 - 1 04; and

Shattuck, Roger, 14- 1 6

the World's Fair, 1 52-55, 1 6 1 -

Sinclair, Upton, 1 7 6 socialism, Emile,

72,

Zola,

62, 1 65, 170, 1 7 1 , 176-77. See also capitalism; Fourier, Char

130n37,

les; naturalism; phalanstere; so

I [On3;

33-35,

1 1 0- 1 1 2,

150. See also anarchy; capi

cialism;

talism; Fourier, Charles; Marx,

Henri de; Zola, Emile: Germi

Karl; Saint-Simon, Claude Hen

nal, Paris, and Travail

ri

de;

working

class;

Zola,

1 3n4,

1 5 - 1 6,

Saint-Simon,

Claude

Vaillant, Auguste, 1 3, 76, 84n20;

Emile Sonn, Richard D.

20n19, 22n2 1 , 23, 24, 30-3 1 , 75-77, 87-88, 105n33, 1 7 1

and attack against la Chambre des Deputes, 88

Valles, Jules, 1 75

Stirner, Max, 24 Symbolism, 20n19,

12,

33,

14n5, 66,

149n58, 1 75, 1 76

15,

67n2,

16, 76,

Weir, David,

14,

1 6 - 1 9 , 20-2 1 ,

23, 36, 46, 172, 175-76

1 97

Index working class: politics of, 33-35, 152-53, 1 68-69; strikes, 33-35.

See also anarchy; socialism; Commune (Paris); Zola, Emile:

Germinal, Paris, and Travail World Trade Center See Septem ber I I

.

th

World's Fair: of 1 85 1 in London,

Le Ventre de Paris, 158, 174; La Conquae de Plassafls, 1 39n45;

Son Excellence Eugene Rougon, 174;

Nana, 68n3; All Bonheur des Dames, 1 0 1 , 1 23 24, 1 5 8 , 1 7 1 , 174;

152-153,

La Joie de vivre, 75, 1 74; Germinal, 10, 1 8, 1 9n 1 7, 2 1 , 30-

1 5 8n70; o f 1 855, 1 52-53. See

32, 33-63, 65-66, 73-75, 79-80,

also Saint-Simon, Claude Henri

82, 8 3 n 1 8 , 89, 96-97, 98n28,

de;

1 0 1 , 1 03-4, 106, 109, 1 1 3-14,

153, 1 57; of 1 889, 1 52, 1 5 5 , 157n68;

of

1 878,

World's

Fair

of

1 900;

utopia World's Fair of 1 900,

1 1 6- 1 1 7,

1 1 8,

120,

126,

1 29n36,

134,

1 35,

141,

1 56,

132,

1 68-69,

1 52-54, 176-77; and electricity,

1 74-76; and capitalism, 38-40,

1 1 6, 1 53, 1 5 5-57; and machi

44, 59-6 1 ; and the guillotine,

nes, 1 5 1 , 155, 1 5 8n7 1 , 1 59-60;

53; and Kropotkin, Peter, 37n9;

and Paris,

and

the,

154,

1 59-60,

subjectivity,

160; rides of and

1 62n77;

4 1 n l 5,

parency, 157-58; Zola's photo

52n33,

graphs of,

151,

1 62n75, See

Karl,

and

Ill,

45,

47n2 1 ,

50n29,

58n39; and Napoleon and

43n17;

Pierre-Joseph,

also Zola, Emile: Travail

38-39;

Mitterand, Henri, 34n 1 , 39n 1 3,

trans

1 59;

and

Marx,

Proudhon,

38n I I ;

and

revolution, 3 1 , 36, 39, 42, 4563, 109; and the Second Em

Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 193. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=193

Zola, Emile:

pire, 35-37; and socialism, 3 9 ,

Articles in alphabetical order ;

45,

57n38;

and

Souvarine,

"La Geologie et l'histoire", 5 1 ;

1 9 n 1 7 , 2 1 , 32, 36-38, 4 1 , 46-

"J'accuse!", 69-70, 178;

49, 5 1 , 55-63, 65-66, 74-75, 89,

"Proudhon

et

Courbet",

29,

1 0 1 , 106, 109, 1 14, 126, 1 3 2 ,

"La RepubJique en Russie", 50,

and the upper class, 39-45, 48,

80n I 5, 1 1 3;

134, 1 56, 1 68, 170-7 1 , 1 74-75; 50,

126; "Le Roman experimental , 28-29; "

54-55,

59-63,

1 1 4;

and

utopia, 36, 6 1 -63, 73, 109; and the working class, 36, 39-45,

Novels in chronological order;

Therese Raquin, 68; Les Rougon-Macquart, 26, 28, 52, 65-7 1 , 100, 1 23-4, 162, 1 74-75;

La Fortulle des Rougon, 100; La Curee, 66-67, 68n3, 1 74;

52-56, 59, 60-62;

L 'rEuvre, 65; La Terre, 65, 68, 1 1 8, 1 39n45; Le Reve, 65; La Sae humaille, 52, 65, 90, 102, 137;

L 'Argent, 65, 174;

198

Explosive narratives

La Debacle, 52n33, 631143, 65,

1 0 9- 1 1 0 ,

1 00, 1 75;

Le Doctellr Pascal, 63n43, 65, Les Trois Villes, 66, 69-70, 74, 79n 1 3 ,

I 1 7n 1 6,

124-25,

1 1 7,

123,

109,

I l l n6,

1 1 7,

1 6 1 n73;

Travail, 10, 2 1 , 23·24, 3 1 ·32, 49, 54, 104, 1 09-1 65, 168, 1 70-7 1 ,

130n37, 1 74;

178;

Lourdes, 65-66, 74, 89;

Rome. 65;

and

mune,

Paris, 1 0- 1 1 , 2 1 , 221122, 23-24, 1 23-24,

the

1 1 6,

anarchic

127-28,

com·

1 5 1 -165,

172; and artisans, 1 1 6n15, 129·

109,

1 1 6,

3 1 , 147, 149, 163-65, 1 67- 1 7 1 ;

1 29-30,

132-

and

3 1 -32, 60, 6 5 - 1 07,

electricity,

102,

1 40n46,

35, 1 40, 1 44, 1 68-70, 1 76-77;

143, 1 44, 150, 155, 168; and

and artisans, 76-77, 1 0 1 , 105;

Fourier, Charles, 1 1 0, 1 1 4, 1 1 7,

and Fourier, Charles, 73, 80,

120,

109,

Kropotkin,

1 24n28; and Guillaume,

123-130,

147,

168; and

Peter,

126·27,

2 1 , 22n22, 66-67, 74-75, 77-80,

1 49n58; and Lange, 2 1 ,

84-86, 89-90, 94, 97-107, 1 1 6,

1 1 9,

121,

1 29-30, 132, 134, 1 68-69; and

142,

147n55,

the

guillotine,

84-86;

Henry, Emile, 75, 8 1 -2, and

Kropotkin, Peter,

128,

1 1 6,

130-35,

139,

148-1 50,

1 53,

and

1 57, 1 60; and Marx Karl, 1 2 1 ;

101;

and Mitterand, Henri,

75n 1 1 ,

,

I I I;

and

Nairay,

1 1 0n3, Jacques,

77-8 1 ; and Marx, Karl, 80; and

1 1 8n 1 8 , 140n46; and Praudhon,

Mitterand,

Pierre·Joseph,

Henri,

Montmartre, Febles, Eduardo A. (Author). Explosive Narratives : Terrorism and Anarchy in the Works of Emile Zola. Amsterdam, NLD: Editions Rodopi, 2010. p 194. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/dominicanuc/Doc?id=10420124&ppg=194

1 1 2,

130n37;

Fecolldite,

1 29n36;

1 1 9-20,

Les Qllatre Evangiles, 69n5, 70,

65,

69-70; and 70,

76,

90,

127,

1 28n34,

1 50; and revolution, 49,

1 1 0,

1 69-70; and Noiray, Jacques,

1 2 1 - 124,

1 54 ;

70-75, 79n14, 92, 106n35; and

and the upper class, 1 1 7, 1 1 9·

Proudhon,

73,

2 1 , 135, 1 3 8 , 147n56, 1 64·65;

77, 79-8 1 ; and revolution, 76-

and utopia, 70, 1 1 8 n 1 7 , 122·24,

77, 95, 100, 106; and the Sacre

127, 130-3 1 , 140- 1 65, 1 68; and

ereur, 50, 67, 83, 85-86, 90, 97,

the working class, I I On3, I l l ·

98n26,

Pierre-Joseph,

101,

1 30-140,

146,

134; and Saint

1 3 , 1 1 8-20, 123n25, 1 3 1 , 140-

Simon, Claude Henri de, 73,

4 1 , 149; and the World Fair's

80; and Salvat, 32, 66-67, 75,

of 1 900, 3 1 -32, 1 04, 1 5 1 - 16 5 ,

8 1 , 84-87, 92-96, 98-99, 1 3 334; and socialism, 65·66, 73, 81,

90,

class,

106;

67,

and

8 1 ·86,

the 104;

upper and

utopia, 70, 73, 96-97, 103-107; and Vaillant, Auguste, 75, 8 1 ; and the working class, 67, 82· 83, 9 1 , 93, 100;

171;

Verite, 109, 1 1 7; Justice, 109, 1 1 7, 174, 1 78