Eine enzyklopädische Literatur der Dinge – Emile Zolas Warenhausroman Au Bonheur des Dames

Abstract

Emile Zola’s novel „Au Bonheur des Dames“ abounds with excessive enumeration and description of clothes. The overwhelming arrangement of these clothes in the department store does not only irresistibly attract female customers but also draws the reader’s attention to a poetics of encyclopaedic writing. Thus, the novel opens up spaces that are filled with goods, systematically organising them in various stores and exhibitions. In view of the novel’s detailed depiction of architecture, economics and customer traffic, the paper argues that Zola asks for a conjunction between the novel and encyclopaedic discourse.