Elemental Ecocritique of Normandy’s Industrial-Era Coast in Zola’s La joie de vivre

This article examines French ecological concerns around the time of the Industrial Revolution in Émile Zola’s La joie de vivre (1884) through the lens of elemental ecocriticism, founded on the four elements categorized in classical antiquity. More-than-human forces on Normandy’s shore are fundamental to Lazare Chanteau’s enterprises regarding L’usine du Trésor and flood defences for Bonneville in the twelfth novel of the Rougon-Macquart saga. An understanding of coastal places on the cusp of modernization can be deepened through a framework at the intersection of biochemistry, regional geography, and the blue humanities. Four interdisciplinary lines of enquiry spanning the novel’s eleven chapters are undertaken to give insights into atmospheric and geophysical conditions as much as sociocultural practices.