Jean Giono
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Giono, Jean (1895-1970)
One of the great contemporary French writers. His work is infused by themes and values of country life, and by political pacifism that grew out of his experience of the two world wars.
1. The formative years (1895-1929) Jean Giono was born in Manosque (Provence) on March 30, 1895, in a family of modest background where his father was a shoe-mender, a self-taught libertarian and a generous person. Giono travalled very little and he rarely left his native village, which is often described or mentioned in his writings (notably in Monasque-des-Plateaux, or "Monasque-of-the High Hills") In 1911, he drops school (while in tenth grade) to work as a bank clerck until 1929. He was mobilized to fight in the Great war (1914) and will recall this traumatizing experience in Le Grand Troupeau (1931) (to the Slaughterhouse), a title denoting at once both the sheep flocks and the military "flock". Giono's father died in April 1920. In June of that year, Giono marries Elise Maurin. From 1920 to 1929, Giono keeps writing relentlessly: unfinished novels, poems in prose published in literary periodicals. In 1927, he finishes writing Birth of the Odyssey, the founding novel of his whole literary oeuvre, as it already contains the elements that will grow and develop later into actual themes: a diffuse anxiety mixed with enthrallment when faced with nature and its forces, all in the dionysiac vein.
2. First literary success (1930 - 1934): Nature as a source of happiness Having turned down Birth of the Odyssey for publication, the editor Grasset accepts to publish Colline (Hill of Destiny) in 1929. Readers and eritics alike ensure instant success to this novel. Andre Gide is enthusiastic about it and visits Giono in Monasque. After producing another best-seller (Un de Baumugnes, 1929, or "One from Baumugnes") Giono devotes himself exclusively to writing. His following novel (Regain or "Harvest") will be made into a movie picture starring Marcel Pagnol. These 3 novels, collectively entitled Pan, now carve out a public image of Giono as poet, story-teller, celebrating life as when attumed to nature's rhythms and sceneries in country life. This public image is further enhanced and elaborated in The starry serpent where human drives and desires try to come to terms with the laws of nature and of the universe. Having published a series of short essays (Solitude of pity, 1930), Giono publishes Jean le bleu (1932) or "Jean the blue one", a narrative highly reminiscent of his own biography, where he magnifies the character and the role of his father in family life. "The song of the world" (1934) marks the end of the joyful period in Giono's literary output. For the fear and apprehension of yet another war is already looming. But as a liberal leftist with an anarchist tinge, Giono remains at heart an unrepentant pacifist.
3. The "Contadour movement" and the pacifist commitment (1935 - 1950) As a result of his literary success and of his hymns and calls to a simple life close to nature, Giono now gains a growing literary and moral authority. So much so that as of 1935, there arises apontaneously around his person the "Contadour movement" a loose association with a pacifist creed, who condemned the excesses and abuses of urban life and culture. In the hills of Haute-Provence, a successive gatherings (each during 2 weeks) of young people will take place around Giono, for simple life, discussions and readings. Alternatively, it is during this period that the pessimistic line of thinking will emerge in his books, with "Let my joy remain" (1935) followed by "True riches" (1936), a title referring to the more enviable values of rural community life, as well as to a rebellious attitude against industrial society life; this attitude being fueled by a rejection of city life with its capitalistic machinism that is perceived as destructive of man. In the same spirit, Refusal to obey (1937) and The weight of Heaven (1938) plead for a return to nature-inspired values, standing against war and human dictatorship. This pacifist commitment will reap imprisonment to Giono for 2 months in 1937. Later on, he will translate Moby Dick by Herman Melville. During the second world war, and until 1951, Giono will be often criticized and unfairly blamed for his political stand of non-commitment and his refusal of ideological enrollment. In this context, he will even be imprisoned again, for 5 months in 1944, and remain balcklisted (even after his liberation) by the "Comité National des Ecrivains" (The powerful French National Commitee of Writers). Still, is is during that period that he publishes Triumph of life (1941) and Fragments of a paradise (1943) as well as the 3 books of the "Horseman's cycle": Angelo (1948), Death of a character (1948) and Horseman on the roof (1951).
4. The period beyond literary and political ostracism (1951 - 1970) The widely noticed success of "Horseman on the roof" (1951) marks the end of Giono's ostracism in the French literary world. From then on, the writer will regularly publish a series of texts bearing witness to his new interest for History and its teachings. He first publishes the "Cycle of chronicles" tinged with a somber spiritual mood, and which includes A king without entertainment (written in 1946), Noah (written in 1948), The strong souls (1950), The mill of Poland (1952) and "The great trails" (1951). The first three of these novels have led critics to find in them a prefiguration of certain aspects of the "Nouveau Roman" literary school of the early 60s. Giono publishes in 1954 his "Notes on the Dominici case" (about the old peasant accused of having killed 3 English tourists) at the request of Gallimard, the publisher. He also returns to the theater with 2 plays: "Joseph at Dothan" and "Domitian". " The Disaster of Pavia", presented as an historical novel, is given much attention for its style, and less for its value as historical document. Giono will return standard fiction with "The man who planted trees", "Ennemonde and other characters" (1968) and "The deserter". His last book will be "The Iris of Susa" (1970)
Jean Giono died in October 1970, of heart failure.
From: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/G/giono/2.html
