Architectural References within Émile Zola’s Novel, The Ladies’ Paradise

Abstract

The depiction of space in literature is crucial to every story as it guides the reader’s imagination regarding the story’s location and the characters’ surroundings. This paper studies the relationship between architecture, interiors, and literary spaces by using a methodology that draws on architectural literary analysis, a methodology that uses literature as a medium to define and analyze architectural spaces and cues. Specifically, it investigates the connections between architectural and spatial references and their influences on societal concerns in literature – the literary space within The Ladies’ Paradise (1883), a novel by Émile Zola (1840-1902). The retail space portrayed within the novel dominates the narrative. Thus, the architectural spaces are described to support the storyline. These spatial cues indicate a specific overall theme, namely capitalism – an important issue to discuss within architectural discourse. Zola reveals a new perspective on the social and architectural impacts on society under capitalism through the public interior space of Ladies’ Paradise. The research also indicates the correlation between architecture, public space, and retailing culture through the birth of the “department store,” thus forever altering society’s ideology on retail culture. Although the novel is categorized as fictitious, the representation of 19th-century retailing culture, women’s role within society, and the significance of architecture are shown to be realistic to that time. In conclusion, this paper reveals the dialogue between architecture, societal gender issues, and the evolvement of retail culture through the medium of literature and derives lessons from this dialogue.

Keywords

• Architecture and literature
• capitalism
• Émile Zola
• literary space
• The Ladies’ Paradise.

References

1. Ballantyne, A. (2011). Shops and subjects. In R. Handa & J. Potter (Eds.), Conjuring the real: The role of architecture in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction (pp. 153-190). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. https://doi. org/10.2307/j.ctt1df4gvp. google scholar
2. Beaumont, M. (2006). Shopping in utopia: Looking backward, the department store, and the dreamscape of consumption. Nineteenth-Century contexts, 28(3), 191-209. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/ 08905490600955415. google scholar
3. Benjamin, W. (2002). The arcades project. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1982) google scholar
4. Berg, W. J. (1992). The visual novel, Emile Zola and the art of his times. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press. google scholar
5. Bishop, D. (2011). Au Bonheur des Dames and the contemporary literary tourist: an inspirational journey through Zola’s Paris to the C21st built environment. In C. Mansfield, & S. Seligman (Eds.), Narrative and the built heritage: Papers in tourism research (pp. 29-39). Saarbrücken: VDM publishing. google scholar
6. Bozbeyoğlu, S. (2002). Eskimeyen toplumbilimci Zola. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 19(2), 1-12. google scholar
7. Carlson, E. A. (2006). City of mirrors: Reflection and visual construction in 19th century Paris (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. google scholar
8. Claeys, G. (2000). The “survival of the fittest” and the origins of Social Darwinism. Journal of the History of Ideas, 61(2), 223-240. https://doi.org/10.2307/3654026. google scholar

9. Clausen, M. L. (1985). The department store: Development of the type. Journal of Architectural Education, 39(1), 20-29. https://doi.org/10.2307/1424824. google scholar
10. Coleman, N. (2007). Utopias and architecture. New York: Routledge. google scholar
11. Çağlar, N., Tuna Ultav, Z. (2004). Emile Zola yazınından mimari/kentsel mekâna dair okumalar ve düşünceler. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 21(2), 43-60. google scholar
12. Glaser, S. A. (2014). Space, time, and narrative: The literary unfolding of architecture. In R. Krause, & E. Zemanek (Eds.), Text-architekturen: Die baukunst der literatur (pp. 13-30). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. google scholar
13. Grafe, C., Havik, K., & Maaskant, M. (2006). Editorial. Architecture & literature. Reflections/imaginations, OASE (70), 3-7. google scholar
14. Havik, K. (2006). Lived experience, places read: Toward an urban literacy. Architecture and literature. Reflections/ imaginations, OASE (70), 37-49. google scholar
15. Hennessy, S. (2008). Consumption and Desire in “Au Bonheur des Dames” The French Review, 81 (4), 696-706. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25481248. google scholar
16. Hobsbawm, E. (2010). Age of empire: 1875-1914. London: Orion. google scholar
17. Kaiser, J. (2012). Gendering consumption (Unpublished master’s thesis). Arizona State University, Phoenix. google scholar
18. Kamm, L. (1983). Zola’s object and the surrealist image. Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 11(3/4), 321-333. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23536417. google scholar
19. Kew, C. F. (2006). Zola’s metacharacters: The nontraditional figural agents of the Rougon-Macquart and what they reveal of nineteenth-century society (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. google scholar
20. Knapp, B. L. (1980). Émile Zola. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. google scholar
21. Koch, D. (2007). Structuring fashion: Department stores as situating spatial practice. Stockholm: Axl Books. https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/274703972. google scholar
22. Madsen, B. G. (1973). Strindberg’s naturalistic theatre: Its relation to French Naturalism. New York: Russell & Russell. google scholar
23. Miller, M. B. (1981). The Bon Marche: Bourgeois culture and the department store, 1869-1920. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. google scholar
24. Nakai, A. (2000). Architecture et littérature-l’influence réciproque entre Émile Zola et Frantz Jourdain [Architecture and literature, reciprocal influence between Émile Zola and Frantz Jourdain]. Doshisha Studies in Language and Culture, 2(4), 547-583. https://doi.org/10.14988/pa.2017.0000004333. google scholar
25. Nelson, B. (1986). Zola’s ideology: The road to utopia. In D. Baguley (Ed.), Critical essays on Émile Zola (pp. 161172). Boston: G. K. Hall. google scholar
26. Nelson, B. (1993). Zola and the counter revolution: Au Bonheur des Dames. Australian Journal of French Studies, 30(2), 233-240. google scholar
27. Parker, K. W. (2003). Sign consumption in the 19th-century department store: An examination of visual merchandising in the Grand Emporiums (1846-1900). Journal of Sociology, 39(4), 353-371. https://doi. org/10.1177/0004869003394003. google scholar
28. Ramazani, V. (2007). Gender, war, and the department store: Zola’s “Au Bonheur des Dames.” SubStance, 36(2), 126-146. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25195129. google scholar
29. Rappaport, E. D. (2000). Shopping for pleasure: women in the making of London’s west end. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. google scholar
30. Rocha, E., Frid, M., & Corbo, W. (2014). Business and magic: Émile Zola, Au Bonheur des Dames and modern consumption. Comunicaçâo, Midia e Consumo, 11 (32), 51-71. http://revistacmc.espm.br/index.php/ revistacmc/article/view/800/pdf_25. google scholar
31. Sewell, J. E. (2011). Gendering urban space. In G. Bridge, & S. Watson (Eds.), The new blackwell companion to the city (pp. 596-606). West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444395105.ch52. google scholar
32. Silla, C. (2018). The rise of consumer capitalism in America, 1880-1930. New York: Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315399669. google scholar
33. Tamilia, R. D. (2007). World’s fairs and the department store 1800s to 1930s. Journal of Macromarketing, 28(1), 228-240. google scholar
34. Tauber, E. M. (1972). Why do people shop? Journal of Marketing, 36(4), 46-49. https://doi.org/10.2307/1250426 google scholar
35. Trumbull, G. (2018). Consumer capitalism: Politics, product markets, and firm strategy in France and Germany. New York: Cornell University Press. google scholar
36. Tuna Ultav, Z., Çağlar, N., Durmaz Drinkwater, B. (2015) Architectural literary analysis: reading ‘the death of the street’ through Ballard’s literature and Trancik’s ‘lost space.’” METU Journal of Faculty of Architecture, 32(2), 133-150. google scholar
37. Zola, E. (1881). Au Bonheur des Dames: Dossier préparatoire [The Ladies’ Paradise: Preparatory files]. https://gallica. bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10500673j. google scholar
38. Zola, E. (1895). The ladies’ paradise. (Translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly) London: Hutchinson & Co. (Original work published 1883) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54726. google scholar