L’institution du héros Poétique d’une réverbération

To become a hero in the work of Zola is to become the privileged prop of a process of reverberation. This is the paradox illustrated by La Fortune des Rougon, this novelistic – and foundational – reaction to the Napoleonic coup d’État. Without intrinsic qualities, Pierre Rougon is consecrated by a series of mystifications and a “story-telling” irreducible to simple genetic heritage. His transformation and his fortune – in short, his fabrication – thus reflect the constituent powers of the imaginary.