Germinal

14 snips

Nov 23, 2023

Guest

Susan Harrow, an expert on Emile Zola, Kate Griffiths, a professor specializing in 19th-century French literature, and Edmund Birch, a lecturer at Cambridge, delve into Zola's powerful novel, Germinal. They discuss the bleak realities faced by miners, exploring themes of poverty, exploitation, and the struggle for humanity amidst industrialization. The conversation highlights Zola's immersive research, his sociological narrative style, and the novel's lasting legacy in literature and art. The guests reveal how Zola's work resonates with modern labor issues, making it ever relevant.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Zola's Early Life Struggles

Zola, born in 1840, failed his baccalaureate twice.
He experienced two years of unemployment and poverty, allegedly surviving by eating sparrows.

INSIGHT

Zola's Aims and Influences

Zola's Rougon-Macquart novels aimed to document his time, explore human behavior, and find beauty in everyday life.
He was influenced by Taine's deterministic view of humanity.

INSIGHT

Zola's Panoramic View of Society

Zola's novels offer a panoramic view of Second Empire society.
He critically examines various aspects of life, from finance to mining and urban poverty.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Emile Zola and the artistry of adaptation

Kate Griffiths

Kate Griffiths's "Emile Zola and the Artistry of Adaptation" delves into the multifaceted adaptations of Emile Zola's works across various media. The book examines how Zola's novels have been reinterpreted and transformed over time, reflecting the changing cultural and social contexts. It explores the creative choices made by adapters and the impact of these choices on the reception and understanding of Zola's narratives. Griffiths analyzes the strategies employed to translate Zola's unique style and themes into different formats, highlighting the challenges and opportunities involved in the adaptation process. The book offers valuable insights into the enduring legacy of Zola's work and its continued relevance in contemporary society.

Zola, the body modern

Susan Harrow

Susan Harrow's book challenges the conventional view of Zola's writing by revealing innovative representations of the body in his novels, especially in the Rougon-Macquart series. It offers a fresh perspective on understanding canonical European novels by exploring modernist and postmodernist elements. The work is informed by critical thought from notable theorists like Barthes and Deleuze.

Naturalist Fiction

David Baguley

This book provides an in-depth analysis of naturalist fiction, primarily examining French naturalist literature. It explores the genre's characteristics and themes, offering insights into the literary movement's entropic vision. The work is considered a foundational study in the field of naturalist fiction.

Adapting Nineteenth-Century France

Andrew Watts

Kate Griffiths

This book delves into the complexities of adapting nineteenth-century French literature across different media platforms, including film, theatre, television, radio, and print. It examines how these adaptations reflect both historical and contemporary notions of originality and authorial borrowing. The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of works by notable figures like Zola, Balzac, and Maupassant.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emile Zola's greatest literary success, his thirteenth novel in a series exploring the extended Rougon-Macquart family. The relative here is Etienne Lantier, already known to Zola’s readers as one of the blighted branch of the family tree and his story is set in Northern France. It opens with Etienne trudging towards a coalmine at night seeking work, and soon he is caught up in a bleak world in which starving families struggle and then strike, as they try to hold on to the last scraps of their humanity and the hope of change.

With

Susan Harrow Ashley Watkins Chair of French at the University of Bristol

Kate Griffiths Professor in French and Translation at Cardiff University

And

Edmund Birch Lecturer in French Literature and Director of Studies at Churchill College & Selwyn College, University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

David Baguley, Naturalist Fiction: The Entropic Vision (Cambridge University Press, 1990)

William Burgwinkle, Nicholas Hammond and Emma Wilson (eds.), The Cambridge History of French Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2011), particularly ‘Naturalism’ by Nicholas White

Kate Griffiths, Emile Zola and the Artistry of Adaptation (Legenda, 2009)

Kate Griffiths and Andrew Watts, Adapting Nineteenth-Century France: Literature in Film, Theatre, Television, Radio, and Print (University of Wales Press, 2013)

Anna Gural-Migdal and Robert Singer (eds.), Zola and Film: Essays in the Art of Adaptation (McFarland & Co., 2005)

Susan Harrow, Zola, The Body Modern: Pressures and Prospects of Representation (Legenda, 2010)

F. W. J. Hemmings, The Life and Times of Emile Zola (first published 1977; Bloomsbury, 2013)

William Dean Howells, Emile Zola (The Floating Press, 2018)

Lida Maxwell, Public Trials: Burke, Zola, Arendt, and the Politics of Lost Causes (Oxford University Press, 2014)

Brian Nelson, Emile Zola: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2020)

Brian Nelson (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Emile Zola (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Sandy Petrey, Realism and Revolution: Balzac, Stendhal, Zola, and the Performances of History (Cornell University Press, 1988)

Arthur Rose, ‘Coal politics: receiving Emile Zola's Germinal’ (Modern & contemporary France, 2021, Vol.29, 2)

Philip D. Walker, Emile Zola (Routledge, 1969)

Emile Zola (trans. Peter Collier), Germinal (Oxford University Press, 1993)

Emile Zola (trans. Roger Pearson), Germinal (Penguin Classics, 2004)