ZOLA’S WOMAN AS UNNATURAL ANIMAL by Noémie I. Parrat “Licentiata Philosophiae,” University of Zurich, Switzerland, 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Department of French and Italian in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2004 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Noémie I. Parrat It was defended on January 9, 2004 and approved by Dr. Yves Citton Dr. Eric Clarke Dr. Daniel Russell Dr. Philip Watts Dr. Giuseppina Mecchia Dissertation Director ii Copyright by Noémie I. Parrat 2004 iii ZOLA’S WOMAN AS UNNATURAL ANIMAL Noémie I. Parrat, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2004 The purpose of this dissertation is to show how certain female characters in Zola question the received notion about the human-animal border and the related distinction between the male and the female. The novels I examine are Madeleine Férat, La Faute de l’abbé Mouret, La Curée, Nana, and Travail. The renewal of interest in contemporary French philosophy on human-animal relations serves as a framework for a reevaluation of the naturalist author, and my analysis of animal metaphors proposes a refinement of the status of the human in Zola. I show how female characters constantly move between the human and the animal to the point of ending either in an ambiguous human-animal in-between or in a transcendence of such a limit. In order to establish a context for Zola’s work, I analyze different aspects of the human-animal discourse in 19th century culture, from the legendary theory of impregnation to androgyny and from sexual inversion to the myth of the femme fatale in both literature and in the arts. Gilles Deleuze’s and Félix Guattari’s notion of becoming-animal, which inscribes animal instincts within a positive discourse, is my main critical reference. I also refer to Alain Badiou’s ethics of truth, which describes the relation of ethics to subjectivity, in my discussion of the subjective status of humans seen as animals. This dissertation underscores oppositions inherent in the human animal, such as Nature versus society. As the title suggests, I posit an oxymoron in viewing woman as an unnatural animal, as an animal in conflict with its human nature or as a human in conflict with its animal side. The human-animal border is not only more frequently subverted but also more complex in female characters than in their male counterpart in Zola’s novels, thus illustrating iv that the human-animal status of women characters poses a real problem while its male counterpart is less puzzling. Maybe unwittingly, Zola’s women profoundly upset 19th century definitions of both humanity and femininity, to a degree that almost contradicts Zola’s own avowed positions in this matter. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE....................................................................................................................................viii 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Contemporary Philosophical Discourse on the Human/Animal..................................... 3 1.2. Deleuze and Guattari’s Becoming-Animal and -Woman in Zola................................... 9 1.3. Literature Review: Zola’s Women in Relation to the Human/Animal......................... 13 2. Zola and the Scientific: Influences, the Legendary Theory of Impregnation and Feminism 23 2.1. Contemporary Influences on Zola’s Conception of the Human as Animal.................. 23 2.2. Michelet’s Theories of Pure Love................................................................................. 30 2.3. Lucas and the Theory of Impregnation......................................................................... 36 2.4. Myth of the Impregnated Woman as Animal in Madeleine Férat................................ 38 2.5. The Theory of Impregnation in Thérèse Raquin and L’Assommoir ............................. 47 2.6. The Scientific Myth of Impregnation from a Feminist Perspective ............................. 50 3. Albine, Désirée, Emile and Badiou’s Ethics of Human and Animal Rights ........................ 58 3.1. The Role of the Animal in Zola’s Life and Thoughts................................................... 58 3.2.Albine and Désirée’s Animal Sides and Subjectivity in Badiou’s and Deleuze’s Terms .. 67 3.3. Emile as Political Subject in the Dreyfus Affair........................................................... 80 3.4. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 84 4. Renée as Androgynous Human Animal in La Curée............................................................ 87 4.1. Introduction to the Notion of Androgyny in the 19th Century ...................................... 87 4.2. Rape and Renée’s and Catherine’s Androgyny ............................................................ 93 4.3. Excess and Maxime’s and Théophile’s Androgyny ..................................................... 96 4.4. Renée’s Becoming-Animal with Maxime .................................................................... 99 4.5. Renée as Diana............................................................................................................ 105 4.6. Renée’s and Thérèse’s Search for Desire ................................................................... 109 4.7. Renée and Maxime as Monsters ................................................................................. 113 4.8. Toward a Transcendence of Animality....................................................................... 118 5. Zola and Medical-Literary Discourse on Homosexuality................................................... 120 5.1. The Human/the Animal in 19th Century Medical Discourse on Sexual Inversion ..... 120 5.2. Zola’s Preface to Saint-Paul’s Medical Study on Homosexuality.............................. 130 5.3. Homosexuality in Animals ......................................................................................... 136 5.4. Zola’s Depiction of the Homosexual Baptiste in La Curée........................................ 139 5.5. Zola’s Preface to a Contemporary Lesbian Novel...................................................... 141 5.6. Zola’s Depictions of the Two Lesbians in La Curée .................................................. 146 5.7. Nana as Satin’s Lover ................................................................................................. 147 5.8. Conclusion: Male-Female Homosexuality versus Medical-Literary Discourse......... 152 6. Nana’s Enigmatic Human-Animal Status as Femme Fatale............................................... 157 6.1. The Myth of the Femme Fatale: Origins and Occurrences in 19th Century Literature157 6.2. Images of the Femme Fatale in the Arts ..................................................................... 168 6.3. Nana as Animalized Femme Fatale ............................................................................ 173 vi 6.4. The Smell of the Femme Fatale Nana......................................................................... 179 6.5. Nana’s Metamorphoses into Animals......................................................................... 182 6.6. Nana at her Apogee..................................................................................................... 188 6.7. The End of the Femme Fatale..................................................................................... 190 6.8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 191 7.Toward a Utopian New Society: Lantier’s and Froment’s Battle against the Human Animal 196 7.1. Etienne Lantier and his Fight against the Animalized Worker................................... 196 7.2. Etienne Versus Chaval in Terms of Subjectivity........................................................ 199 7.3. Etienne Lantier: Luc Froment’s Predecessor.............................................................. 201 7.4. Fourier and Letourneau in Travail.............................................................................. 203 7.5. Luc Froment and Subjectivity..................................................................................... 206 7.6. Tarde’s Notion of Imitation in Travail ....................................................................... 209 7.7. The Machine as Agent of De-Animalization.............................................................. 211 7.8. Illusory Disappearance of l’Autre............................................................................... 212 7.9. Zola the Prophet.......................................................................................................... 216 7.10. Toward an Eradication of Complexity.................................................................... 217 8. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 219 APPENDIX................................................................................................................................. 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................... 225 vii PREFACE I would like to thank all my wonderful professors, both at the University of Zurich and at the University of Pittsburgh, who showed me how exciting and challenging