Zola, Taine, Bakunin, and Darwin in Germinal

• Main Authors: Tsung-wei Chen, 陳宗偉
• Other Authors: David Barton
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92479016762440439150

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 英美語文研究所 === 87 === Abstract In this thesis on the Naturalist novel Germinal, I respectively discuss the idea of race, milieu, and moment in Hippolyte Taine’s literary theory, the idea of struggle in Mikhail Bakunin’s anarchism, and the idea of instinct in Charles Darwin’s evolution. Emile Zola, the author of Germinal, is obviously familiar with those three intellectuals’ theories in his day, and his Germinal can be viewed as his response to the intellectual positions of Taine, Bakunin, and Darwin. As a Naturalistic novelist who seeks to depict reality, Zola has his characters cope with their internal and external conditions, and his narration is then tinged with Taine’s, Bakunin’s, and Darwin’s ideas. In light of Taine’s literary theory, Bakunin’s anarchism, and Darwin’s evolution, the characters in Germinal are shown to be helpless creatures in a competitive universe.