Structures et pratiques économiques dans l’œuvre d’Émile Zola, l’exemple de Germinal

As the thirteenth book of Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series, Germinal looks like a precise painting of the 19th century’s society. The mines of Montsou, and its population, are depicted by Zola with the help of a broad preparing work, both realised in the field, and through many readings, some dealing with economics. Although Zola’s skills in political economy were not that precise, his plot clearly reveals what the industrial realm was, when he wrote. In this paper, I underline the way Zola translated his modest preparing work concerning economics in his novel. I make the link between Zola’s fiction and the main characteristics of the mining industry at the end of the 19th century. I also set in contrast these elements with the emerging theories–at the time–of natural resources economics, in particular towards the relationship between mining and economic crises