The Gendered Political Economy of Zola's La Curée

In Zola's La Curée, the two main types of activities associated with the new economic order of Haussmann's Paris are gendered: speculation tends to be coded as masculine, while consumption tends to be coded as feminine. But rather than overly structuring the narrative, this binary blurs as the novel progresses, firstly because characters of both genders – and of mixed gender – practice both activities, and secondly because speculation and consumption are not as separable as they seem. (JW)