DOCSLIB.ORG

Mines, Miners and Mining:Programme Notes.Qxd

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mines, Miners and Mining:Programme Notes.Qxd Germinal France | 1993 | 160 minutes Credits In Brief Director Claude Berri Adapted from the novel by Emile Zola, Germinal depicts a miner’s strike and Screenplay Claude Berri, Arlette Langmann repression by the authorities in mid-19th century France. Gerard Depardieu and Miou Miou star. Music (novel by Émile Zola ) Photography Cast Maheude Miou-Miou Étienne Lantier Renaud Chaval Jean-Roger Milo Toussaint Maheu Gérard Depardieu 'Germinal' a Vision of Hope for Workers Claude Berri's soaring, magnificent film of Emile Zola's "Germinal" (at the Royal) cuts right to the movies' unique, paradoxical power of rendering human misery at its most unrelenting with images of surpassing grandeur and meaning. Pictures don't get much bleaker than this 158-minute epic saga of the grinding existence of 19th-Century French coal miners--but they don't get much more beautiful either. Berri and his formidable yet understated cinematographer, Yves Angelo, aided by Jean-Louis Roque's subtle yet stirring score, bring a unifying, majestic lyricism to their contrasting views of the few ultra-rich and the many desperately poor. "Germinal," France's official entry in the Oscars, glows with the humanism and passion for authenticity that were Zola's hallmarks, and is a worthy successor to Berri's similarly powerful "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Springs." The story is set roughly a century ago, but it's actually unfolding, with varying degrees of severity, around the world right now. As a leader in the international Naturalist literary movement, Zola believed that the destinies of most people, especially the poor, were dictated--and usually harshly--by environment. In any event, the Maheu family and their friends and neighbors, who labor mightily at the Voreux pit in Northern France, could scarcely be more trapped. Times are bad, which means that the miners must concentrate on loading their carts as fully and as often as possible at the expense of properly securing the mine's tunnels with timber; if they complain, they risk losing all payment for timbering. Maheu (Gerard Depardieu) and his wife, Maheude (Miou-Miou), have seven children, more than they can support, but doubtlessly religion--and quite possibly ignorance as well--have made birth control out of the question. Besides, as the community's resident anarchist (Laurent Terzieff, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Lenin) remarks, "Capitalism allows workers only to eat dry bread and make babies." But now pay cuts threaten to take away the bread and to starve the babies. A quiet, reasonable man, Maheu, a foreman, emerges as the leader of a strike movement after management has refused his modest plea for enough pay to provide daily bread. What keeps cuts between the Maheu's barren table and that of the mine's managing director (Jacques Dacqmine) with its elaborate, abundant fare from seeming heavy-handed is that Zola--and Berri--are able to perceive that the haves are actually vulnerable to the same economic system as the have-nots. Zola may have had a passion for social reform, but thankfully it is tempered by a healthy pessimism that keeps it from seeming like self-righteous ax-grinding. "Germinal," which has too profound a vision of life to be a mere message movie, is no Marxist tract--just a simple urging for the privileged to share Mines, Miners and Mining more generously with the needy, i.e., you shouldn't be eating brioche when your workers can't afford bread. In an actual abandoned mining community, restored for the film down to the last detail, Berri has gathered a large and superb ensemble cast that includes Jean Carmet as the Maheu grandfather stricken with black lung, Judith Henry as their grown daughter and Jean-Roger Milo as her hot-tempered, homely suitor. Triggered by the arrival of the idealistic, dangerously naive, labor-organizing machinist Etienne Lantier (Renaud), the plight of the Maheus and everyone else at Voreux goes from bad to the unspeakably worse, culminating in multiple tragedies characteristic of ancient Greek drama. Since "Germinal" is so determinedly grim and the socioeconomic ills and injustices it depicts so depressingly familiar, one might well ask why one should submit to it--and submission, make no mistake about it, is precisely what is required. The answer is that we can see ourselves in the film's people and be moved by their plight, buoyed by their warm, earthy spirit and thrilled by how vividly Berri has brought the past back to life. "Germinal" offers only the most tentative note of hope, but that it was made in the first place is in itself an act of affirmation. Kevin Thomas, LA Times Germinal - Emile Zola warning contains full synopsis Germinal(1885) is the thirteenth novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Often considered Zola's masterpiece and one of the most significant novels in the French tradition, the novel – an uncompromisingly harsh and realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s – has been published and translated in over one hundred countries as well as inspiring five film adaptations and two television productions. The title refers to the name of a month of the French Republican Calendar, a spring month. Germen is a Latin word which means "seed"; the novel describes the hope for a better future that seeds amongst the miners. Germinal was written between April 1884 and January 1885. It was first serialized between November 1884 and February 1885 in the periodical Gil Blas, then in March 1885 published as a book. The novel's central character is Étienne Lantier, previously seen in L'Assommoir (1877), and originally to have been the central character in Zola's "murder on the trains" thriller La Bête humaine (1890) before the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Germinal persuaded him otherwise. The young migrant worker arrives at the forbidding coal mining town of Montsou in the bleak area of the far north of France to earn a living as a miner. Sacked from his previous job on the railways for assaulting a superior, Étienne befriends the veteran miner Maheu, who finds him somewhere to stay and gets him a job pushing the carts down the pit. Étienne is portrayed as a hard-working idealist but also a naïve youth; Zola's genetic theories come into play as Étienne is presumed to have inherited his Macquart ancestors' traits of hotheaded impulsiveness and an addictive personality capable of exploding into rage under the influence of drink or strong passions. Zola keeps his theorizing in the background and Étienne's motivations are much more natural as a result. He embraces socialist principles, reading large amounts of working class movement literature and fraternizing with Souvarine, a Russian anarchist and political émigré who has also come to Montsou to seek a living in the pits. Étienne's simplistic understanding of socialist politics and their rousing effect on him are very reminiscent of the rebel Silvère in the first novel in the cycle, La Fortune des Rougon (1871). While this is going on, Étienne also falls for Maheu's daughter Catherine, also Mines, Miners and Mining employed pushing carts in the mines, and he is drawn into the relationship between her and her brutish lover Chaval, a prototype for the character of Buteau in Zola's later novel La Terre (1887). The complex tangle of the miners' lives is played out against a backdrop of severe poverty and oppression, as their working and living conditions continue to worsen throughout the novel; eventually, pushed to breaking point, the miners decide to strike and Étienne, now a respected member of the community and recognized as a political idealist, becomes the leader of the movement. While the anarchist Souvarine preaches violent action, the miners and their families hold back, their poverty becoming ever more disastrous, until they are sparked into a ferocious riot, the violence of which is described in explicit terms by Zola, as well as providing some of the novelist's best and most evocative crowd scenes. The rioters are eventually confronted by police and the army that repress the revolt in a violent and unforgettable episode. Disillusioned, the miners go back to work, blaming Étienne for the failure of the strike; then, Souvarine sabotages the entrance shaft of one of the Montsou pits, trapping Étienne, Catherine and Chaval at the bottom. The ensuing drama and the long wait for rescue are among some of Zola's best scenes, and the novel draws to a dramatic close. Étienne is eventually rescued and fired but he goes on to live in Paris with Pluchart. Historical context Michele Angiolillo uttered clearly the word Germinal before he died. The title, Germinal, is drawn from the springtime seventh month of the French Revolutionary Calendar and is meant to evoke imagery of germination, new growth and fertility. Accordingly, Zola ends the novel on a note of hope and one that has provided inspiration to socialist and reformist causes of all kinds throughout the years since its first publication: "Beneath the blazing of the sun, in that morning of new growth, the countryside rang with song, as its belly swelled with a black and avenging army of men, germinating slowly in its furrows, growing upwards in readiness for harvests to come, until one day soon their ripening would burst open the earth itself." By the time of his death, the novel had come to be recognized as his undisputed masterpiece. At his funeral crowds of workers gathered, cheering the cortège with shouts of "Germinal! Germinal!". Since then the book has come to symbolize working class causes and to this day retains a special place in French mining-town folklore.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Tolstoy and Zola: Trains and Missed Connections
    Tolstoy and Zola: Trains and Missed Connections Nina Lee Bond Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Nina Lee Bond All rights reserved ABSTRACT Tolstoy and Zola: Trains and Missed Connections Nina Lee Bond ŖTolstoy and Zolaŗ juxtaposes the two writers to examine the evolution of the novel during the late nineteenth century. The juxtaposition is justified by the literary critical debates that were taking place in Russian and French journals during the 1870s and 1880s, concerning Tolstoy and Zola. In both France and Russia, heated arguments arose over the future of realism, and opposing factions held up either Tolstoyřs brand of realism or Zolařs naturalism as more promising. This dissertation uses the differences between Tolstoy and Zola to make more prominent a commonality in their respective novels Anna Karenina (1877) and La Bête humaine (1890): the railways. But rather than interpret the railways in these two novels as a symbol of modernity or as an engine for narrative, I concentrate on one particular aspect of the railway experience, known as motion parallax, which is a depth cue that enables a person to detect depth while in motion. Stationary objects close to a travelling train appear to be moving faster than objects in the distance, such as a mountain range, and moreover they appear to be moving backward. By examining motion parallax in both novels, as well as in some of Tolstoyřs other works, The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) and The Death of Ivan Il'ich (1886), this dissertation attempts to address an intriguing question: what, if any, is the relationship between the advent of trains and the evolution of the novel during the late nineteenth century? Motion parallax triggers in a traveler the sensation of going backward even though one is travelling forward.
    [Show full text]
  • J'accuse Como Fato Literário
    J’ACCUSE COMO FATO LITERÁRIO: UMA LEITURA DA CARTA ABERTA DE ÉMILE ZOLA Milene SUZANO1 RESUMO : A partir da metodologia de análise de Leo Spitzer, o presente texto busca colocar em movimento os elementos literários da carta J’accuse, escri- ta por Émile Zola, em janeiro de 1898. A enorme repercussão da carta na época tem sido constantemente associada à influência da imprensa de massa e aos re- cursos retóricos tão habilmente utilizados por Zola. Mas, além dos elementos per- suasivos e do fator imprensa, a personificação das figuras reais e a adjetivação po- larizante dos personagens reais são, em grande medida, frutos de construções literárias. A partir destes dois elementos (adjetivação e personificação), o objetivo do texto é propor uma análise de trechos da carta, dos textos de polêmica de Zola e de seus romances nos quais se manifesta semelhante procedimento. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: estilística, J’accuse, imprensa, Émile Zola, carta aberta. 1 Doutora em Letras pela Universidade de São Paulo – mail : [email protected] nº 12 71 J’ACCUSE COMME UN FAIT LITTÉRAIRE: UNE LECTURE DE LA LETTRE OUVERTE D’ÉMILE ZOLA RÉSUMÉ : Basé sur la métodologie de Leo Spitzer, cet article cherche à mettre en movement la construction littéraire de J’accuse, lettre ouverte d’Émile Zola, publiée en janvier 1898. Son importante réception à l’époque a été souvent asso- ciée à l’influence de la grande presse et aux recours réthoriques bien utilisés par Zola. Mais au delà de ces elements de persuasion, la personnification des person- nages réels et la construction d’un monde dual sont, en grande partie, les consé- quences d’une composition littéraire bien élaborée.
    [Show full text]
  • Du Conte Au Roman : L'image Du Sang Dans Le Programme Littéraire Et
    Du conte au roman : l’image du sang dans le programme littéraire et politique de Zola Halia Koo Memorial University Le sang, dans sa dimension physiologique et métaphorique, occupe une place importante dans l’œuvre d’Émile Zola. Ses descriptions souvent sanglantes des réalités associées à la vie comme à la mort témoignent de l’intérêt quasi médical qu’il porte au corps, à son fonctionnement et à ses manifestations pathologiques. Afin d’examiner l’un des aspects du traitement que subit l’image du sang dans Les Rougon-Macquart, nous commencerons par nous pencher sur un conte de Zola écrit dans sa jeunesse et intitulé « Le Sang » : il s’agit d’un récit HALIA KOO, « L’image du sang dans le programme littéraire et politique de Zola » allégorique abordant des thèmes qui deviendront le sujet des préoccupations littéraires et idéologiques de cet écrivain politiquement engagé. Un récit précurseur : « Le Sang » Zola en est à ses débuts littéraires lorsqu’il publie en 1864 son tout premier livre, Contes à Ninon, un recueil de huit nouvelles, dont un récit intitulé « Le Sang ». Divisé en cinq parties (quatre sections distinctes suivies d’un épilogue), ce conte relate l’histoire de quatre soldats qui, au soir d’une victoire militaire, campent dans le coin désert d’un champ de bataille jonché de cadavres. Endurcis par leur métier, ces hommes ne sont guère émus par l’horreur du paysage qui les entoure : ils achèvent tranquillement leur souper, lorsqu’un cri terrible retentit dans la nuit. Trois soldats nommés Elbert, Clérian et Flem partent chacun à leur tour sonder les ténèbres et découvrir la cause de cette plainte déchirante sortie de l’ombre.
    [Show full text]
  • Germinal by Emile Zola 1885 Translated and Introduced By
    1 Germinal by Emile Zola 1885 Translated and Introduced by Havelock Ellis Introduction By Havelock Ellis 'GERMINAL' was published in 1885, after occupying Zola during the previous year. In accordance with his usual custom--but to a greater extent than with any other of his books except La Débâcle--he accumulated material beforehand. For six months he travelled about the coal-mining district in northern France and Belgium, especially the Borinage around 2 Mons, note-book in hand. 'He was inquisitive, was that gentleman', miner told Sherard who visited the neighbourhood at a later period and found that the miners in every village knew Germinal. That was a tribute of admiration the book deserved, but it was never one of Zola's most popular novels; it was neither amusing enough nor outrageous enough to attract the multitude. Yet Germinal occupies a place among Zola's works which is constantly becoming more assured, so that to some critics it even begins to seem the only book of his that in the end may survive. In his own time, as we know, the accredited critics of the day could find no condemnation severe enough for Zola. Brunetière attacked him perpetually with a fury that seemed inexhaustible; Schérer could not even bear to hear his name mentioned; Anatole France, though he lived to relent, thought it would have been better if he had never been born. Even at that time, however, there were critics who inclined to view Germinal more favourably. Thus Faguet, who was the recognized academic critic of the end of the last century, while he held that posterity would be unable to understand how Zola could ever have been popular, yet recognized him as in Germinal the heroic representative of democracy, incomparable in his power of describing crowds, and he realized how marvellous is the conclusion of this book.
    [Show full text]
  • A the Determinist Case
    A The Determinist Case As indicated in Chapter I, most nineteenth-century determinists understood 'heredity' and 'environment' as including everything that made a man what he was. Conception was generally recognised as the dividing line between the respective dominions of these two groups of factors, although meticulous demarcation experts still tussled over borderland issues such as congenital syphilis and the other hazards that the unsuspecting foetus could encounter during gestation. Nineteenth-century determinism was largely based on the assumption that matter could neither be created nor destroyed: an assumption that was implicit, if not always stated. No phenomenon, be it a person, a thought or an event, could have an autonomous existence that owed nothing to its antecedents and surroundings. Everything was the outcome of the interaction of pre-existing factors, which were themselves the product of earlier factors: each object or occurrence was a link in a mesh of causal chains, stretching back to 'the beginning of things' (in a world still joyously uncomplicated by Einstein). The word 'chance' had no place in this scheme of existence, except to designate something that was unexpected by the participants or observers of a particular situation. Philosophical text-books were rich in illustrative examples of why 'chance' should be banished from academic speech: the many written by Scottish professors showing an understandable predilection for unhappy incidents involving falling roof slates-the influence of environment being nowhere
    [Show full text]
  • The Question of Objectivity in Zola's Thérse Raquin
    Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Pennission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the pennission of the Author. The Question of Objectivity in Zola's Therese Raquin. A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in French at Massey University. Kathryn Noreen Kearins, 1990. ii Abstract. The first chapter examines the fascination the concept of objectivity held for certain French Realists including Emile Zola, acknowledged leader of the Naturalists who believed in the application of the scientific method to novel-writing. These writers sought to produce works of mimetic value and attached themselves to the tenets of objectivity in an attempt to achieve this. However it was recognized that their efforts at producing 'objective' novels were threatened by a requirement for artistry in published fiction. More recent thinking acknowledges that objectivity is not achievable, at least not in absolute terms. The problems inherent in various definitions of objectivity in fiction are examined and reveal general agreement that this kind of objectivity requires at least the appearance of detachment and neutrality by the author. In order to examine the question of the author's detachment, Chapter 2 makes a case for the distinctions of author, implied author and narrator to be blurred in Zola's Therese Raquin. Four distinct aspects of the narrating voice are examined. Examples are given of the various forms of commentary in the narrative which reveal the presence of the author-narrator.
    [Show full text]
  • La Situation Économique Au Temps De Germinal
    Högskolan i Halmstad Sektionen för Humanoria Franska 61-90 hp Vt. 2008 Mémoire, 15 hp La situation économique au temps de Germinal – une étude comparative de la condition des mineurs et de la situation de la compagnie minière dans le roman aussi bien que dans la réalité Jenny Ahlberg Sous la direction de Tawfik Mekki-Berrada Table de matières 1 Introduction .................................................................................................3 2 Développement.............................................................................................4 2.1 L’arrière-plan ...........................................................................................................4 2.1.1 Les personnages et la Compagnie.........................................................................4 2.1.2 Le temps...............................................................................................................4 2.1.3 La place................................................................................................................4 2.2 La situation économique du roman..........................................................................5 2.2.1 La région..............................................................................................................5 2.2.2 La Compagnie des mines de Montsou...................................................................5 2.2.3 La valeur de la monnaie........................................................................................6 2.3 La Compagnie des mines de
    [Show full text]
  • Naturalism in Extremis: Zola's Le Rêve
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Apollo Naturalism in extremis: Zola’s Le Rêve CLAIRE WHITE Peterhouse, University of Cambridge, UK Abbreviated Title: Correspondence to: Dr Claire White, Peterhouse, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1RD, UK. Email: [email protected] In planning his 1888 Le Rêve, Zola envisaged a novel that would be distinctly out of character: ‘je voudrais faire un livre qu’on n’attende pas de moi’. The present article explores what is at stake in Zola’s desire to break with his own image at this juncture in the history of naturalism’s reception. While Le Rêve can be understood as a demonstration of the author’s versatility in the face of new strains of aesthetic experimentation in the aftermath of the ‘Manifeste des Cinq’, it also responds to a more longstanding negotiation with the language of idealism. The article focuses on Zola’s harnessing, and critique, of the idealist imagination in Le Rêve. It first proposes a psychoanalytical reading of the Zolian heroine’s fantasy life through the lens of Freud’s 1908 ‘Family Romances’. The child’s power to redraw reality through day-dream – to enact what Freud terms ‘a correction of actual life’ – is connected, in turn, to the wager that frames Zola’s narrative: that of rendering ‘la vie telle qu’elle n’est pas’. Zola’s experiment with idealism thus involves rehearsing the terms and suspicions at work in his earlier biographical writing on George Sand – the idealist writer Zola had assimilated to the ‘dream’ of the novel’s title.
    [Show full text]
  • Anatomie D'un Chef-D'œuvre : Germinal
    ANATOMIE D'UN CHEF-D'ŒUVRE « GERMINAL » DU MÊME AUTEUR ERNEST PSICHARI, MON FRÈRE. Plon. RENAN D'APRÈS LUI-MÊME. Plon. DEVANT DIEU, MENTIR... (roman). Corrêa. USINES 42 (roman). Albin Michel. RENAN ET LA GUERRE DE 70. Albin Michel. LA PRIÈRE SUR L'ACROPOLE ET SES MYSTÈRES. C. N. R. S. ANATOLE FRANCE, PAGES CHOISIES. Éd. sociales. DES JOURS ET DES HOMMES. Grasset. ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES D'ERNEST RENAN (éd. définitive en 10 vol.). Calmann-Lévy. Sous presse : TRENTE ANS DE VIE SOCIALE, textes d'Anatole France, tomes III et IV en collaboration avec Claude Aveline. Émile-Paul. LES IDÉES BOURGEOISES (roman). Calmann-Lévy. HENRIETTE PSICHARI Anatomie d'un chef-d'œuvre " Germinal " MERCVRE DE FRANCE MCMLXIV © MERCVRE DE FRANCE, 1964 INTRODUCTION 1864, les Contes à Ninon, premier volume d'Émile Zola. A cette date, les aventures irréelles ne plaisaient plus. Les contrebandiers d'opéra- comique de Mérimée, les villageois faussement heureux de George Sand lassaient ou agaçaient le lecteur. Les écrivains, d'ailleurs, avaient réagi : l'étalage de mots techniques et l'érudition de Sa- lammbô avaient appris au public que le fait histo- riquement exact ne diminue en rien la valeur d'un roman. On voulut du vrai, du réel ou du moins, il fallait que le roman en eût l'apparence. De cette tendance nouvelle est venu pour une bonne part le triomphe de Zola. Le romancier qui peut nommer les centaines d'espèces de fleurs du Paradou 1 qui 1. La Faute de l'abbé Mouret. fait pénétrer le lecteur dans le maquis des transac- tions boursières ou qui consacre vingt pages à décrire une exposition de blanc sans confondre la cretonne avec le plumetis , éblouit par sa science.
    [Show full text]
  • Préface De Germinal
    1 Henri Guillemin Préface à Germinal, d’ Emile Zola Editions Rencontre, Genève, 1968 Présentation Guy Fossat La publication, ci-après, de la Préface que rédigea Guillemin pour le Germinal de Zola, s’inscrit dans la poursuite de la rubrique “Henri Guillemin préfacier” que j’ ai tenue dans le Bulletin annuel de Présence d’ Henri Guillemin depuis 2016. Il s’agissait de faire connaitre Guillemin à partir de cette “production particulière” que constituaient pour lui, ses Préfaces ou ses Introductions à des ouvrages dont l’auteur (ou le thème) retenait son attention, à quelque titre que ce soit. Il en fut ainsi pour trois de ses Introductions. A la Grande histoire de la Commune, de Georges Soria (Bulletin n°5, 2016) ; aux Méditations poètiques, de Lamartine (N°6, 2017) ; aux Rêveries du promeneur solitaire, de Jean-Jacques Rousseau (N°7, 2018) Le site internet prend maintenant le relais de cette rubrique. Quelques lignes sur les apports de la présente Préface Au lecteur pressé ou qui se plonge dans les ouvrages de Guillemin, cette Introduction peut permettre de découvir, en quelques pages, à la fois ses objectifs, sa démarche et son style. C’est un concentré de ses ouvrages. Objectifs : présenter un auteur et une oeuvre en cours de gestation, en alliant sans cesse ce que Guillemin perçoit comme ses qualités et ses excès. Autant dire qu’il ne vise pas la neutralité du critique littéraire: comme à son habitude, il prend parti. Il argumente. Il s’appuie sur de nombreuses sources. Le Journal de Goncourt ne lui suffit pas! Guillemin donne une place de choix, à la relation que les personnages entretiennent avec la religion, Dieu et la foi, et avec la sexualité, soit beaucoup de doutes.
    [Show full text]
  • Émile Zola Germinal
    Émile Zola Germinal BeQ Émile Zola 1840-1902 Les Rougon-Macquart Germinal roman La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec Collection À tous les vents Volume 57 : version 3.0 2 Les Rougon-Macquart Histoire naturelle et sociale d’une famille sous le Second Empire 1. La fortune des Rougon. 2. La curée. 3. Le ventre de Paris. 4. La conquête de Plassans. 5. La faute de l’abbé Mouret. 6. Son Excellence Eugène Rougon. 7. L’assommoir. 8. Une page d’amour. 9. Nana. 10. Pot-Bouille. 11. Au Bonheur des Dames. 12. La joie de vivre. 13. Germinal. 14. L’œuvre. 15. La terre. 16. Le rêve. 17. La bête humaine. 18. L’argent. 19. La débâcle. 20. Le docteur Pascal. 3 Germinal Édition de référence : Paris, Bibliothèque-Charpentier. Eugène Fasquelle, Éditeur, 1906. 4 Première partie 5 I Dans la plaine rase, sous la nuit sans étoiles, d’une obscurité et d’une épaisseur d’encre, un homme suivait seul la grand-route de Marchiennes à Montsou, dix kilomètres de pavé, coupant tout droit, à travers les champs de betteraves. Devant lui, il ne voyait même pas le sol noir, et il n’avait la sensation de l’immense horizon plat que par les souffles du vent de mars, des rafales larges comme sur une mer, glacées d’avoir balayé des lieues de marais et de terres nues. Aucune ombre d’arbre ne tachait le ciel, le pavé se déroulait avec la rectitude d’une jetée, au milieu de l’embrun aveuglant des ténèbres. L’homme était parti de Marchiennes vers deux heures.
    [Show full text]
  • L'aliénation Et La Lutte Des Classes Sociales Dans Germinal De Émile
    L'aliénation et la lutte des classes sociales dans Germinal de Émile Zola Recherche présentée par Lamiaa Kathim MOUFTEN Mai 200́ Sommaire Germinal de Zola, est l'une des œuvres les plus célèbres du XIXe siècle. C'est l'histoire d'une grève, le soulèvement des salariés, le coup d'épaule donné à la société qui craque un instant, en un mot la lutte du capital et du travail. L'action du roman se déroule dans le milieu des mineurs. Le roman décrit un moment de l'histoire économique et sociale, prend pour toile de fond le monde du travail et l'évolution de la société industrielle à la fin de ce siècle avec l'apparition du machinisme. Il évoque une étape du mouvement ouvrier : l'époque où éclatent des grèves criant l'aliénation dont souffrent les classes inférieures. Germinal est alors le premier roman à évoquer le monde ouvrier, dessinant l'une des images les plus puissantes ; luttes contre la société bourgeoise, révélant les conditions de travail des mineurs à l'époque en décrivant leurs souffrances. Révolté par la misère de ses camarades, Étienne Lantier est un héros qui s'attaque au capital- minotaure, déjà en lutte avec le patronat, se lance à corps perdu dans l'action révolutionnaire. C'est l'épopée des travailleurs qui espèrent vivre dans un monde plus juste. Le roman marque l'éveil du monde du travail à la conscience de ses droits. ˺ L'aliénation et la lutte des classes sociales Nourri d'un esprit scientifique, Zola est un chef de file de l'école naturaliste.
    [Show full text]