Le degré zéro de l'écriture naturaliste? La Teuse dans La Faute de l'abbé Mouret

In La Faute de l'abbé Mouret (1875), the character of the domestic servant provides Zola not only with comic relief but also with a way of reinstating realism in a novel where sociological observation has been replaced by mythical, mystical and lyrical investigations of the self. Textual analysis shows how the servant, called la Teuse, serves as an allegory for popular wisdom, cultural identity (through her identification with the church bell), as well as literary realism. Standing as the degree zero of naturalism, la Teuse is Zola's way of confessing his inability to conform to his own aesthetics. (In French.) (MG)