作為其一生文學思想的起點,左拉針對文學再現之真實性問題所提出的"屏幕說",與其后來作為自然主義文學理論家所提出的"真實感""個性表現"等重大理論主張息息相通。作為對摹仿現實主義之"鏡"的揚棄與浪漫主義之"燈"的矯正,"屏幕說"所開啟的文學"顯現論"拒絕以二元對立的思維模式來理解作家與世界的關系,堅持文學只能是在世界中的人對其在與世界交合境遇中的個人體驗的直呈。既是人的自我顯現,又是世界在人之顯現中的顯現,既反對浪漫主義的極端"表現",又否認"再現"能達成絕對的真實,顯現論不惟達成了對再現論與表現論所代表著的本質主義詩學的顛覆,而且汲取"再現"與"表現"各自的合理成分,實現了兩者的融合;這種融合在本質上乃是一種新質的誕生而非舊質的簡單疊加,顯現論完成了西方現代文學本體論的重構。

As the starting point of his literary thoughts, Emile Zola’s "Screen Theory" raised for the question of the authenticity of literary representation is closely related to some major theoretical claims such as "the Sense of the Real" and "Expression of Personality," which were later put forward by him as a naturalist literary theorist. As the sublation of "the Mirror" of Mimetic Realism and the rectification of "the Lamp" of Romanticism, "Epiphany Theory" ushered in by "Screen Theory" refuses to understand the relationship between the writer and the world in a binary oppositional mode of thinking, insisting that literature can only be the "direct manifestation" of the personal experience of the human in the world in his encounter with the world. Epiphany refers to not only the epiphany of the man, but also the epiphany of the world in the epiphany of the man. It not only rejects the extreme expressiveness of Romanticism but also denies that Representation can achieve absolute truth. Therefore, "Epiphany Theory" has not only achieved its subversion of the Essentialist Poetics represented by the "Representation Theory" and the "Expression Theory," but also acquired the respective reasonable components of these two theories so as to achieve the fusion of them. This kind of fusion is essentially the birth of a new theory rather than simple superimposition of old qualities. "Epiphany Theory" thereby completes the reconstruction of the ontology of Western modern literature.