Journal article
THE CRITICISM AND THE EXCEEDING OF THE "EXPERIMENTAL METHOD" IN THERESE RAQUIN
Nottingham French studies, Vol.60(3), pp.347-361
12/01/2021
DOI: 10.3366/nfs.2021.0330
Abstract
This article makes the case for reading Zola’s protagonists Laurent and Thérèse as literary foils for one of the founding fathers of the experimental method, namely the physiologist Claude Bernard, and his wife, Fanny Martin. Drawing more particularly on elements from Bernard’s and Martin’s lives, as well as Bernard’s scientific writings, the article shows that Zola ‘performs’ two grueling experiments in the aforementioned novel: the first one, initiated by the author himself, results in the death of three protagonists and the paralysis of the fourth one; the second experiment, initiated by Laurent, reveals that the latter’s evaluation of Thérèse and his ensuing hypothesis are seriously flawed. In fact, Laurent’s gaze is marred by his tendency to ‘dirty’ nature (‘salir la nature,’ to borrow Zola’s expression), and his experiment doesn’t turn out the way he had originally planned, as both lovers turned murderers end up committing suicide together. This article thus argues that, in Thérèse Raquin, Zola resorts to critical posturing as a vivisector in a text that can be read as a revenge narrative which gestures towards the possibility for vivisectors to be ‘redeemed’ as individuals made fully capable of feeling compassion for their objects through angelic intervention.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- THE CRITICISM AND THE EXCEEDING OF THE "EXPERIMENTAL METHOD" IN THERESE RAQUIN
- Creators
- Helene Sicard-Cowan - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Nottingham French studies, Vol.60(3), pp.347-361
- Publisher
- Edinburgh Univ Press
- DOI
- 10.3366/nfs.2021.0330
- ISSN
- 0029-4586
- eISSN
- 2047-7236
- Number of pages
- 15
- Language
- French
- Date published
- 12/01/2021
- Academic Unit
- French and Italian
- Record Identifier
- 9984397924402771
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