MERDE! The Caricatural Attack against Emile Zola

Zola's frankness and political engagement contrasted sharply with the rarefied prose and alienated spirit of the younger generation of Symbolist writers. The eminent Naturalist author counseled these writers against the meandering, elegant lines that disguised their skepticism and urged them to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Art journal (New York. 1960) 1993-10, Vol.52 (3), p.54-58
Main Author: Kleeblatt, Norman L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Art history
Authors
Bourgeois
British literature
French literature
Illustration
Literary criticism
Literary naturalism
News media
Swine
Toilets
Writers
Zola, Emile (1840-1902)
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Summary:Zola's frankness and political engagement contrasted sharply with the rarefied prose and alienated spirit of the younger generation of Symbolist writers. The eminent Naturalist author counseled these writers against the meandering, elegant lines that disguised their skepticism and urged them to express directly their indignation with the age: just "say shit to the century." 1 The most notoriously maligned but nevertheless most popular writer of his day, Zola certainly knew of what he spoke. Not only was his fiction steeped in intimate physiological and salacious sexual detail, but his own public image, especially that established in popular caricature, had itself become synonymous with scatology.
ISSN:0004-3249
2325-5307
DOI:10.1080/00043249.1993.10791524