Manifesto of Naturalism  

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Two texts are usually attributed as being the Manifesto of Naturalism, the "Preface to the second edition of Thérèse Raquin" (1867) and the essay "The Experimental Novel" (1880). Both are by Émile Zola.

"In Therese Raquin, I wanted to study temperaments and not characters. .... I chose characters primarily dominated by their nerves and blood, without free will."

"I had only one desire: portray a highly sexed man and an unsatisfied woman, to uncover the animal side of them and see that alone, then throw them together in a violent drama and note down with scrupulous care the sensations and actions of these creatures. I simply applied to two living bodies the analytical method that surgeons apply to corpses."

--("Preface to the second edition of Thérèse Raquin" (1867); tr. Belle M. Sherman)

"This is what constitutes the experimental novel: to possess a knowledge of the mechanism of the phenomena inherent in man, to show the machinery of his intellectual and sensory manifestations, under the influences of heredity and environment, such as physiology shall give them to us, and then finally to exhibit man living in social conditions produced by himself, which he modifies daily, and in the heart of which he himself experiences a continual transformation" --"The Experimental Novel" (1880)

A third text of Zola, "Les Romanciers naturalistes" (1881) , also defends Naturalism as genre, by tracing its precursors.

The preface to the 1888 play by August Strindberg, Miss Julie, is also sometimes labeled as a manifesto of Naturalism.

"The fact that my tragedy makes a sad impression on many is the fault of the many. When we become strong, as were the first French revolutionaries, it will make an exclusively pleasant and cheerful impression to see the royal parks cleared of rotting, superannuated trees which have too long stood in the way of others with equal right to vegetate their full lifetime; it will make a good impression in the same sense as does the sight of the death of an incurable." --tr. via The Social Significance of the Modern Drama

See also

• Miss Julie
• French naturalism
• Literary manifesto
• The Experimental Novel
• Preface to the second edition of Thérèse Raquin.
• Naturalism (literature)
• French literature of the 19th century
• 19th century literature