The poetics of disgust in realist fiction

Nineteenth-century naturalist literature received adverse publicity as ‘literature of disgust,’ inciting moral indignation and accusations of indecency in reading audiences. Depictions of lower classes, primitive instincts and sexuality, sickness, ugliness and degeneration were considered vulgar topics that exceeded the limits of good taste and morality. In this case study I investigate the poetics of disgust in naturalist fiction by analyzing two case studies in French and Finnish naturalism. It is my contention that disgust is essentially intertwined with realism’s and naturalism’s aesthetic ideals as an emotion capable of documenting real life, and it contributes to the creation of effects of reality peculiar to naturalist fiction. By analyzing Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin (1868) and Nana (1880) I illustrate how the poetics of disgust in naturalist fiction reflects the anxiety about our animal selves and combines with fear and horror, yet producing contrasting emotional effects, an ambivalent allure of the disgusting. On the contrary, while disgust has sometimes been considered a morally suspect emotion or an ugly feeling, examples in Nordic naturalism demonstrate disgust’s critical power and even its moral potential. In moral disgust, the reaction of rejection characteristic of disgust extends to a refusal to violate socio-moral codes. Depiction, evoking, and triggering disgust in readers can be used to debate contemporary problems, which, according to the Danish critic Georg Brandes, constitutes the core of modern literature. The moral potential of disgust reverberates in the works of Nordic authors in particular, who have employed the naturalistic narratives of sickness and degeneration to shock conservative audiences and provoke critical discussions on the female condition.