Strategies of Corporization: with Regard to Émile Zola’s La Vérité en marche

Abstract

In order to explain the success and the influence that the texts
written by Zola during the Dreyfus case had, it is not sufficient
to refer to the propositional content. We also know that at this
level, Zola’s argumentation contains factual errors, lacunas and
confusions. The origin of the force of these texts, that the author
collected together in 1901 in a compilation entitled La Vérité en
marche, has to be sought after somewhere else. It seems to be
essentially linked with the rhetorical, and more generally the
aesthetic qualities that characterize them. As an example of
the metaphorical tales established by Zola around the truth, the
present article intends to show how this notion of abstract
essence, this base value in the universe of the writer, takes shape
little by little and thus contributes to making La Vérité en marche
what could prove to be the most successful naturalist novel
by Zola and which, in any case, has really contributed more to
changing the face of the world.