Extended Summary

The concept of “labor history,” which constitutes the backbone of this article, is a broad one. Labor history should be understood as a work-centered field that begins with the individual as a subject of work and life, and extends across a wide spectrumfrom the scale of the enterprise to the scale of the industry, and from there to the national level. According to this definition, labor history encompasses, under the overarching heading of “labor relations / working conditions,” such subtopics as occupational accidents, women’s and child labor, trade-union organization that enables the collective movement of labor, collective labor struggles including strikes and lockouts, as well as legal regulations related to working life.

The relationship between labor history and literature can undoubtedly be explained by the fact that literature is the art form that most vividly reflects the phenomenon of laborranging from novels to short stories, from poetry to essays and theater. Some thinkers and critics have emphasized that, alongside archival documents, statistics, and printed sources, literary texts dealing with labor relations should also be regarded as sources that shed light on labor history. For example, Engels, referring to the works of Balzac, stated: “…From these, and indeed with economic details, I learned more than from all the professional historians, economists, and statisticians of this period combined.”

Published in 1877, The Assommoir is the seventh volume of the twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart series. The Rougon-Macquarts are a family originating from the same roots but divided into two separate branches: the “Rougons” and the “Macquarts.” While the Rougons consist of individuals belonging to the petty bourgeoisie and high society, the Macquarts are small tradespeople and, more predominantly, members of the poor working class. In the novel, it is emphasized that during the Second Empire period (1852–1870), workers were made to work 12–13 hours a day and could earn only 3–5 francs, barely managing to meet their basic needs such as clothing, food, and rent. In addition, the official institutions of the period, which failed to seek fundamental solutions to the problems of the working class, are implicitly criticized.

The misery of the working class depicted in The Assommoir is not fictional but rather a literary reflection of the lived reality of the nineteenth century. Zola sought to underline the realism of the plot in the preface to his work by stating: “It (L’Assommoir) is a work that tells the truth; it is the first novel that does not lie and that carries within it the scent of the people.” On the other hand, the working class’s low wage levels, inclination toward alcohol, and moral degradation were also addressed in the works of writers such as Louis Villermé and Pierre Brizon. Indeed, many contemporary critics regarded Zola’s The Assommoir as a unique “key work” for understanding the poor working conditions and social inequalities faced by workers in the nineteenth century. Therefore, The Assommoir has come to be accepted as one of the works that can be used as material in future studies of labor history.

Germinal is the thirteenth novel in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series. Published in 1885, the novel focuses primarily on the harsh working conditions and misery of the workers employed in the Montsou coal mines in the town of Anzin. Remaining faithful to the social and economic realities of the 1860s, the novel addresses issues such as the industrial world, the exploitation of workers through low wage levels, unhealthy housing conditions, and alcohol dependency. Many critics have noted that Zola identified and presented these problems using scientific, observation-based methods characteristic of a naturalist writer. Moreover, Zola demonstrated the same sensitivity he showed in identifying the problems of the working class in ensuring the realism of the plot; in Germinal, he grounded the depiction of trade-union organization and strikes at the Montsou coal mines, the primary setting of the novelin official documents. As mentioned in the article, the author meticulously adhered to the existing legal regulations concerning working life. In this respect, Germinal, which is regarded in Western literature as a “documentary novel” (roman documentaire) reflecting labor–capital relations after the Industrial Revolution, has been accepted as one of the masterpieces works that can be used as material in future labor history research.

In conclusion, although no concrete results were achieved from the struggles undertaken by workers to protect their rights in Germinal, an expectation emergedexpressed by Zola as “from the lived past to the imagined future” (Du passé vécu au future rêvé). Indeed, the enactment of the Waldeck-Rousseau Law of 1884, which regulated the free establishment of worker and employer unions through a ten-article legal framework, was eventually followedalbeit with half century-long delayby the Matignon Agreements of 1936, which granted trade unions the right to engage in collective bargaining with employers, including the right to strike.