Elemental Ecocritique of Normandy’s Industrial-Era Coast in Zola’s La joie de vivre

ABSTRACT

This article examines French ecological concerns around the time of the Industrial Revolution in Émile Zola’s La joie de vivre (1884) through the lens of elemental ecocriticism, founded on the four elements categorized in classical antiquity. More-than-human forces on Normandy’s shore are fundamental to Lazare Chanteau’s enterprises regarding L’usine du Trésor and flood defences for Bonneville in the twelfth novel of the Rougon-Macquart saga. An understanding of coastal places on the cusp of modernization can be deepened through a framework at the intersection of biochemistry, regional geography, and the blue humanities. Four interdisciplinary lines of enquiry spanning the novel’s eleven chapters are undertaken to give insights into atmospheric and geophysical conditions as much as sociocultural practices.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article examine des soucis écologiques français au temps de la révolution industrielle dans La joie de vivre d’Émile Zola (1884) du point de vue de l’écocritique élémentaire, fondée sur les quatre éléments classés pendant l’Antiquité classique. Les forces plus qu’humaines sur le rivage de la Normandie sont fondamentales aux entreprises de Lazare Chanteau au sujet de l’usine du Trésor et des ouvrages anti-crues pour Bonneville dans le douzième roman de la saga des Rougon-Macquart. Une compréhension des lieux côtiers à l’orée de la modernization peut s’approfondir via un cadre au croisement de la biochimie, de la géographie régionale et des humanités bleues. Quatre axes de réflexion interdisciplinaires portant sur les onze chapitres du roman sont entrepris pour éclaircir les conditions atmosphériques et géophysiques autant que les pratiques socioculturelles.

Acknowledgements

I benefitted from discussions at conferences on ‘Environment and Identity’ (Australian Society for French Studies), ‘Grounding Story’ (Association for the Study of Literature, Environment, and Culture in Australia and New Zealand), and ‘Discovery and Exploration’ (Society of Dix-Neuviémistes), as well as events on ‘Framing the Nineteenth Century’ (University of New England, Armidale), ‘Ecoregional Approaches to Francophone Culture’ (University of Sydney), ‘Le “Ecoregioni” dell’Ottocento francese fra geografia, cultura e tattiche autoesotiste’ (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan), and ‘Experiments in the Blue Humanities’ (Ocean Space, Venice). I am grateful to Nick White for nurturing my thinking about Zola, to Jessica Tanner for lighting the way with Zolian ecocritiques, to Una Ryan for generously supporting this project, to Susan Harrow for characteristically incisive feedback on a draft, and to Gill Allwood for curating 4200 words of reviews that did wonders for the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Quotations from Zola’s handwritten dossier involving superscript, asterisks, and strikethroughs follow the format presented by Colette Becker and Véronique Lavielle in La fabrique des Rougon-Macquart.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council [‘Language Acts and Worldmaking’].

Notes on contributors

Daniel A. Finch-Race

Daniel A. Finch-Race FHEA (he/il/egli) is a research fellow in the Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, following teaching/research fellowships in Southampton, Durham, Edinburgh, and Bristol. His solo publications include articles in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Modern Language Review, and Romance Studies, as well as an issue of Nineteenth–Century Contexts (‘Poetics of Place’, 2019). As co-editor, he worked with Jeff Barda on Textures (Peter Lang, 2015), with Stephanie Posthumus on French Ecocriticism (Peter Lang, 2017), with Julien Weber on issues of Dix-neuf and L’esprit créateur (‘Ecopoetics’, 2015; ‘French Ecocriticism’, 2017), and with Valentina Gosetti on a double issue of Dix-neuf (‘Ecoregions’, 2019). During 2019–20, he was the treasurer of the Society of Dix–Neuviémistes, and a founder of the special interest group for early career academics within the University Council of Modern Languages.