Description
This book analyzes the role of the mother figure in Emile Zolas twenty-novel series Les Rougon-Macquart . Zolas texts demonstrate a continual preoccupation with women as they become mothers, specifically, how their status as reproductive and sexual beings creates a conflict that cannot be reconciled. The author employs theories of determinism and naturalism to shape the mother figure, relying on tainted heredity to place her in situations in which she is bound to fail, either as a mother or as a woman. Motherhood in Les Rougon-Macquart entails an alienation of the woman as she loses her autonomy and her voice. The ideal mother portrayed in the series is a woman who will sacrifice her sexuality and even herself to fit the mold established by Zola. This work will appeal to Zola scholars as well as to scholars of nineteenth-century fiction and womens studies.
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