You are here

FAU Collections » FAU Research Repository » FAU Theses and Dissertations

decheance matriarcale chez Zola: "L'assommoir" et "Germinal"

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2002
Summary:
Critical studies of Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels, while explicating in detail the characterological functions of the women characters, including Gervaise in L'Assommoir and la Maheude in Germinal, have neglected the thematic functions of matriarchy in those texts as in the cycle as a whole. The decline of the matriarch is a prominent component of Zola's naturalistic scheme for the Rougon-Macquart , manifests not only in the increasing corruption of the progeny across the cycle, but primarily in the monographic depictions of the matriarchs themselves. Working-class mothers in particular embody the conflictual tensions of gender inequities and socio-economic deprivations that lead them to produce child-workers to support the family, typically becoming ever more negligent, on the model of Gervaise. Specifically in Germinal, Zola's largely negative conception of the fictive matriarch begins to change. This shift is sustained in subsequent texts of the cycle: the matriarch still suffers almost total loss (of husband, children, position), but she attains a new insight into the socio-economic system that so devours her offspring, and a new lucidity about her position within it.
Title: La decheance matriarcale chez Zola: "L'assommoir" et "Germinal".
440 views
266 downloads
Name(s): Alaoui, Sanaa Ismaili
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2002
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 92 p.
Language(s): French
Summary: Critical studies of Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels, while explicating in detail the characterological functions of the women characters, including Gervaise in L'Assommoir and la Maheude in Germinal, have neglected the thematic functions of matriarchy in those texts as in the cycle as a whole. The decline of the matriarch is a prominent component of Zola's naturalistic scheme for the Rougon-Macquart , manifests not only in the increasing corruption of the progeny across the cycle, but primarily in the monographic depictions of the matriarchs themselves. Working-class mothers in particular embody the conflictual tensions of gender inequities and socio-economic deprivations that lead them to produce child-workers to support the family, typically becoming ever more negligent, on the model of Gervaise. Specifically in Germinal, Zola's largely negative conception of the fictive matriarch begins to change. This shift is sustained in subsequent texts of the cycle: the matriarch still suffers almost total loss (of husband, children, position), but she attains a new insight into the socio-economic system that so devours her offspring, and a new lucidity about her position within it.
Identifier: 9780496179077 (isbn), 12970 (digitool), FADT12970 (IID), fau:9838 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Adviser: Jan Hokenson.
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2002.
Subject(s): Literature, Romance
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12970
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.