La Curée, crónica de la sociedad parisina del Segundo Imperio, simbolizada por Renée Saccard
ISSN: 0213-2958
Year of publication: 2017
Issue Title: Questions de genre: pensées de la différence
Issue: 25
Pages: 439-455
Type: Article
More publications in: Anales de filología francesa
Abstract
La Curée, novel whose title and writing have a metaphorical meaning, is the account of a quartering after a hunt, and depicts the time of madness and shame that is the Second Empire. If the whole novel draws a portrait of Parisian society, it is the main and most emblematic character, Renée Saccard, the one who better illustrates this period of French history, due to the parallelism between the fate of Renée and that of the Second Empire. Renée refects more than any other character the excesses of society, and carries the symbolism of the novel. Indeed, she is the symbol of the society painted by Zola: an empire of luxury, of life to the utmost. Product, incarnation and victim of this regime, which breaks a little more every day, like Paris. Heading for a fatal degeneration, we will see how her destiny evolves through two issues directly related to each other: the objectifcation of Renée, and her progressive descent into depravity. The debasement embodied by Renée is not only indicative of moral laxity in personal relationships, but it also conveys the decay and collapse of society.
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