Emile Zola: The persuit of "Truth"

Emile Zola (1840-1902) occupies a distinctive (and distinguished) place in the great tradition of French ccitical-realist ficrion. The naturalist emphasi on integrity of repre­sentation opened the novel up co a new realm of subjects: the realities of working-class life, class relations, sexualfry, and the body; and a new freedom of expression in their depiction. The attacks Zola sustained throughout his career for his purported obsession with "filth" were largely political in nature - attempt by the esrablishmenr to discredit bim. He wa a reformist, not a revolutionary, and the denuncjacion of social injustice and hypocrisy embodied in his fiction is implicit, bounded by the naturalise ae rheti of "objeccivicy"; but it is no less eloquent for being implicit - Zola never stopped being a danger to the established order