LA FOLIE AU PRISME DU GENIE ARTISTIQUE DANS L’ŒUVRE D’ÉMILE ZOLA
Madness Through the Lens of Artistic Genius in Émile Zola’s Work

Summary/Abstract: Madness in French literature remains a rather vague term, or a disease, if not a privilege. For Zola, it's a phenomenon that can be scientifically explained by physiology and environmental studies. Zola pursues the symptoms of this disease in his characters throughout his work. That's why, in the very first novel of his fresco Les Rougon-Macquart: La Fortune des Rougon, he gave the seeds of madness to the founder of the protagonists' lineage: grandmother Adélaïde Fouque, so that he could diversify his field of experience. Our research follows Zola's scientific path to explain, precisely and according to environmental studies, Mouret's transition from a normal person to a mad one.

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