Zola and the Bad Word: From Letters to Fiction, a Poetics of Alterity

Abstract

This article explores how “bad speech” in Zola’s work circulates between his epistolary writings and his fiction, ultimately forming a true poetics of otherness. Initially received, endured, and internalised, this injurious language was first processed in his correspondence, where Zola imposed a critical distance, before being sublimated in the more expansive realm of the novel. He transformed it into a fully-fledged literary device, a means of constructing his authorial ethos, where harsh words became markers of authenticity, rebellion, and style. Through a cross-analysis of his letters and key passages from L’Assommoir, the article examines how verbal violence – whether suffered or expressed – becomes both a narrative and aesthetic engine. This transfer from the private sphere to fiction reveals a process of linguistic transfiguration, which allowed Zola to articulate and transcend social tensions and symbolic violence while asserting his identity as a committed writer.