A brief introduction to Emile Zola, Realism and Naturalism hope you enjoy it

1. Naturalism And Realism
Emile
Zola

2. Biography
• Born in Paris, 1840
• Only child of Italian immigrant
and French mother
• Father died when Zola at 9,
leaving him in extreme
poverty
• Learning about poverty, often
appearing in many
subsequent novels

3. Biography(Cont.)
• 1862 to 1877, struggling along, publishing about a novel a year
• With L'Assommoir, becoming famous, gaining profit

4. Biography(Cont.)
• Rougon-Macquart series, his great
contribution to French literature
• Twenty volumes depicting various
aspects of life and society under
second empire in France
• Nana, the most successful
• Reading from one to another,
struck by tremendous imagination

5. Biography(Cont.)
• Later life, becoming a champion of
many causes
• Intervention in Dreyfus affair
• Famous article "J'accuse"(I Accuse)
A bible for left-wing radicals

6. Biography(Cont.)
• Famous for views about naturalism
• Novelists utilize scientific method in creating characters for fiction
• Theoretical criticism influenced course of modern literature
• Making his presence felt in almost every area of literary world
• Called father of naturalism

7. Introduction To Realism
• By 1840 Romanticism worn out
• Variety of factors: political, economic, social, scientific, incidental
• Death of main Romantics
• Rejection of metaphysical / transcendental
• New set of ethical, political, social challenges

8. Introduction To Realism(Cont.)
• Reflection, mirror, reproduction
• Emphasis on daily life
• Objectivity
• Visible, observable
• Middle class

9. The Medieval Outlook
• World and our lives Teleological (They have a purpose, an aim)
• Absolutist world in religious and political thought
• Earth’s design and purpose centers on God’s plan for our Earthly
existence
• Earth, center and centerpiece of God’s creations

10. Challenges to the Old World View
Copernican Model of Universe
–Earth no longer center of God’s universe
–New timetables for Earth’s age

11. Challenges to the Old World View(Cont.)
Shift from Religious tradition and authority to Scientific Method
Rise of inductive methods of scholarship
Mechanistic view of Nature
Expansion of Secular Learning
Rise of Humanism and democratic reform

12. The Rise of Naturalism
• Descartes: Universe purely mechanical and materialistic

13. The Rise of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Newton: Detailed formulas for physical determinism with study of
inertia and gravity

14. The Rise of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Hegel: Theory of historical determinism
• we all play scripted parts in progress of world

15. The Rise of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Charles Darwin: Theory of biological determinism

16. The Rise of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Karl Marx: Idea of economic determinism
• Arguing social class and economic conditions in which humans
found themselves largely responsible for what they are

17. The Rise of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Freud: Psychological determinism
• Prenatal and early childhood experiences determine much of life

18. The Rise of Naturalism(Cont.)
• B. F. Skinner similar theory of psychological determinism
• Human shaped by stimulus-response conditioning same Pavlov’s dogs
• Much of modern psychology based on such theories.
Yes, Master!

19. Characteristics Of Naturalism
• Humanity trapped by forces out of control
• Restricted life to ugly and unpleasant
• Reduced to level of animal
• Caught in hostile universe
• Pessimistic determinism

20. Characteristics Of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Objective
• Detached method of narration
• Darwinist--survival of the fittest
• Language--formal; piling on of images ("wretched excess")
• Deterministic natural and socioeconomic forces stronger than man
• Human unable to stand against enormous weight of circumstances

21. Characteristics Of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Characters--lower socioeconomic class
• Attention to setting, point of saturation
• Heredity determines character
• Violence--force against force
• Static characters
• Animal imagery
• Taboo topics

22. Characteristics Of Naturalism(Cont.)
• Naturalists observe, then write. About the black, darker side of life.
• "Pessimistic materialistic determinism"
• Characters conditioned or controlled by environment, heredity,
instinct or chance but they have compensating humanistic value
affirms the significance of individual
• Characters not have free will (determinism)

23. Zola And Naturalism
• Systematic, objective, and scientific
extension of Realism
• Duty of the novelist: Presenting as
accurate a picture of life as possible
• Functioning as scientifically and as
objectively as possible
• Representatives of working class

24. Zola And Naturalism(Cont.)
• Purpose: presenting
understanding contemporary
social milieu
• A "corner of reality seen through
a temperament“
• Character shown as product of
his environment and heredity
• People's actions, like those of a
beast

25. Zola And Naturalism(Cont.)
• Themes:
• “Conflict 'man against nature' or 'man
against himself‘
• Characters struggling to retain a 'veneer
of civilization' despite external pressures
that threaten to release 'brute within'
• Nature, indifferent to man
• Universe, deterministic

26. The Experimental Novel
• Importance of hereditary and environmental determinism
• Application of “scientific method” to literature
• Man seen as another animal
• Novel as laboratory
• Godless universe

27. The Experimental Novel(Cont.)
• History, social and economic
conditions shaping protagonists
• Collective protagonists
• Including all aspects of human
experience

28. The Experimental Novel(Cont.)
• Not focusing on “beautiful”
• Sex, brutality, violence, crude
language
• Image of reality emphasizing social
injustices and defects
• Readers saw in it a means of
rebellion against dominant classes

29. THANK YOU
PREPARED AND PRESENTED BY:
FATEMEH GHAHRAMAN
LITERARY CRITICISM 1