(De-)localising capital

lines of flight from Zola's mystères de Marseille

Michael G. Kelly

pp. 185-204

in: Richard Hibbitt (ed), Other capitals of the nineteenth century, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Emile Zola's 1867 feuilleton novel Les Mystères de Marseille was written in parallel with Thérèse Raquin, the novel which established his literary reputation. The two texts underwrite a dichotomy between commercial, "alimentary" literature and the highbrow work constitutive of cultural capital, suggesting here that entry into the literary field via a recognised highbrow work—a Parisian event—is enabled thanks to the "less-valued" work for the "provincial" readership. This essay also considers Zola's representation of the failed revolution of 1848 and of betting establishments in Marseilles, arguing that he illustrates conflictual properties of modern capital in a decentred context. Notwithstanding the cultural and political domination of Paris, Marseilles exemplifies a regional city that also looks out to the Mediterranean and the possibilities of global commerce within an emerging world system.