This interpretation of Les Rougon-Macquart contends that Zola’s elaborately argued history of salvation skews between imageless authenticity and literalized divine grace, so that naturalism of the novels is inhibited by the forms that it wants to overcome. By presenting the crusade of modernity as a Via Crucis, Zola rewrites the Gospels as a testament without grace.
Michael Rieser
Heilsgeschichte Naturalismus Zola Naturalism 19th-century French Literature Salvation