Heroes and antiheroes in the tales of Zola and the painting of Manet

Authors

  • Dorra Barhoumi University of Kairouan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2023..50-59

Keywords:

Zola, Manet, hero, antihero, correspondences, education, identity

Abstract

In literature just as in the art of painting, the representation of the romantic or pictorial hero is dependent on an antihero who designates, by the narration of facts or by the evocation of pictorial signs, the relationship, the influence or effect of one on the other. In Zola's tale The Convent we have tried to analyse the relationship between two little girls with different aspects in their behaviour by showing the link between their descriptions and the paintings by Manet. Since Zola and Manet are considered to be very good friends, this explains the inspiration they drew on from each other through their literary and artistic creations which contain echoes and correspondences, among other things, in the evocation of the status of the hero and the antihero.

Author Biography

  • Dorra Barhoumi, University of Kairouan

    Dorra Barhoumi is Assistant Professor and university lecturer of French Literature at the University of Kairouan – Tunisia, with a doctoral thesis defended in 2011 at the University of Paris VIII in France. Title: Writing the evil of being in the 19th century: Chateaubriand, Constant, Maupassant. She is the author of several published articles on literature, psychoanalysis and the arts.

References

De Felici, R. (n.d.). Entre apparences et profondeurs : le personnage de Renée dans La Curée d’Emile Zola. OpenEdition Journals. Retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org

Ernest, C. (1978). Psychanalyse de l’art. PUF.

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Le Cam, J.-B. (n.d.). Eduquer des corps nobiliaires à la fin du XVIII siècle : l’exemple de Mme de Genlis. OpenEdition Journals. Retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org

Mitterrand, H. (1990). Zola l’histoire et la fiction. PUF.

Pagès, A. (2014). Zola et le groupe de Médan, histoire d’un cercle littéraire. Perrain.

Zola, É. (1995). L’œuvre. Flammarion.

Zola, É. (1999). Edouard Manet, étude biographique et critique. (Original work published 1893). Editions la Bibliothèque Digitale.

Zola, É. (2009). Portraits de femmes. Neuf nouvelles naturalistes. Magnard.

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Published

2025-11-06

Issue

Vol. 9 (2023)

Section

I.Forms and Modes of Empathy: Heroes and Anti-Heroes in a Comparative Perspective

License

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How to Cite

Heroes and antiheroes in the tales of Zola and the painting of Manet. (2025). Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum, 9, 50-59. https://doi.org/10.60056/CCL.2023..50-59