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The natural and the supernatural in Zola's Theresa Raquin.(Emile Zola)

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From: Symposium
Date: 20010922
Author:Knutson, Elizabeth M.

Various critics have remarked upon the apparent incompatibility between Zola's scientific intentions in Therese Raquin and the gothic, fantastic dimension that permeates the novel. (1) In his preface to the second edition of the novel published in 1868, Zola emphasizes the scientific nature and purpose of what, in more conventional terms, is a compelling story of the mental degeneration and eventual collapse of two murderers in the aftermath of their crime. Naturalism, commonly defined as the application of scientific observation to the novel, is the expressed guiding principle ...

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