ABSTRACT
In the late 19th century, a theatrical movement called ‘naturalism’ emerged in which human beings going about their ordinary business were examined like organisms in a laboratory. While some of the ‘business’ examined was of the industrial kind, it was the domestic situation of families and lovers that was scrutinised by this new theatre. Naturalism’s imbrication in ideas of ‘home’ is not just a matter of thematic preoccupation, its frequent portrayal of homes and of ideas of home. For Emile Zola, the naturalistic playwright is an expert observer, but one who should recede from view to the point of invisibility so that characters can be seen to act of their own volition, and the truth and causal logic of their situation can appear self-evident. The aesthetic/methodological link between the ‘pinning down’ of science and naturalistic theatre is the detective story, which arose as a Western form from the middle of the nineteenth century.
