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Divine images of hysteria in Emile Zola's Lourdes.(Critical Essay)

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From: Nineteenth-Century French Studies
Date: 20020322
Author:Comfort, Kathleen Ann

Emile Zola's Lourdes, a novel that sparked controversy when it was first published in 1894, is generally considered today to be of most interest as a socio-historic document. Nonetheless, its metaphorical structure makes it worthy of study as a literary work. What is striking about the imagery in Lourdes is the complex interweaving of Zola's trademark medical descriptions with Catholic symbolism to depict the "miraculous" healing of Marie de Guersaint, whose pilgrimage to the shrine in Southern France forms the center of the narrative. Strikingly, the depiction of the young ...

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