Reading Beyond Gender in Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames, L’Argent, and La Joie de vivre

Abstract

Much has been said about how Émile Zola uses fragmented corporeality and subjectivity in Au Bonheur des Dames (1883) to critique the implications of modern commerce for women. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the fact that Zola attributes the same features to male experiences of modernity in L'Argent (1891). Through an ecocritical analysis that moves beyond the gendered dimensions of individual novels, this article compares the crowds of Au Bonheur des Dames and L'Argent to the coastal narrative of La Joie de vivre (1884)–re-evaluating Zola's use of aquatic imagery while examining the equally intriguing recurrence of dust.