Naturalism Redressed: Identity and Clothing in the Novels of Émile Zola (review)

Thompson's study, inspired by Barthes's highlighting of the material 'texture' of text (in S/Z and Le Plaisir du texte), investigates the role of clothing in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, probing the textual interstices, and thereby engendering new readings of a number of the novels in the series and developing others. The physical presence in certain novels of a range of signifying items of material, clothing and ornamentation allows Thompson to go beyond the standard socio-economic and symbolic connotations of certain items (the aristocratic distinction of lace and velvet as sensuous skin) to reveal a perhaps less expected set of interpretations, especially in the close analysis that she affords to particular texts (notably Au Bonheur des Dames, La Curée, Nana and Le Docteur Pascal). Thompson draws on a range of theoretical stances, including queer theory, to explore the fact that numerous textiles and items of clothing (including lace and veils) hide as much as they reveal and thence to suggest that the transgressive sexual nature of those who acquire, wear or desire particular items reflects the transgressive nature of the naturalist text itself. Claims that 'things are seldom, if ever, what they seem in the world of the Rougon-Macquart' (p. 126) and that 'Zola uses carefully placed references to clothing to lend structure and sequencing to his novel series' (p. 143) may strike one as somewhat exaggerated, as does considering any character associated with clothing and fabrics as a reflexive reference to the author (the case of the dressmaker Worms in La Curée is particularly difficult to make in this connection, given the very heavy irony with which Zola treats him). Overall, however, through the examination of clothing in its widest sense, Thompson's study rightly highlights the transgressive nature of power and desire present in many of the novels and offers sustained and convincing readings, further enriching our continuing awareness of the multilayered character of the naturalist text, which Zola himself sought to portray in his theoretical writings as scientific and unproblematic. Slightly more careful editing would have rid the text of some needless repetition and improved the referencing (for instance, p. 55 and note 22; the Krafft-Ebbing references, pp. 116–17), including cross-referencing. These reservations should not, however, deter readers interested both in Zola and in broader considerations of textual constructions of gender and desire, and Thompson is to be congratulated in bringing the two so fulsomely together.