De la nouvelle au roman historique Zola face à la Commune

Zola evokes the Commune in his novella Jacques Damour, and then again at the end of his novel La Débâcle. This is not just an exercise in rewriting: the positions are more decided. The allegorical reading of history results in a ‘de-­realisation’ of space and time in an anti-epic mode, with emblematic figures and apocalyptic tonalities adapted to political discourse.