Germinal Lesson Plan

What Is Naturalism?

Kind of Activity:

Research

Objective:

Students will research and prepare a report on the naturalism literary movement.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7

Structure:

Naturalism is, essentially, a literary movement largely spearheaded by Émile Zola, embracing determinism, objectivism, and social commentary. It is not dissimilar to realism's rejection of Romanticism. Zola, in particular, wrote in "The Experimental Novel" that a naturalist novel should be regarded as a scientific experiment, with its characters as the subjects. In the case of Germinal, the novel is part of a much larger series of 21 novels...