Giono : La Guerre, la Paix, L’Epidémie

• Main Author: Luis Carlos Pimenta Gonçalves
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association Portugaise d'Etudes Françaises 2020-05-01
• Series: Carnets
• Subjects: Giono (Jean); french literature (20th century); world war I; world war II; epidemic in literature (the)
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/carnets/11472

The experience of the war of 14-18 marks forever Jean Giono, mobilised between 1915 and 1919, gassed, although slightly, bruised by the disappearance of friends and relatives. From this ordeal arises a deep aversion to war and patriotic discourse, which will also be reflected in pacifist writing in the interwar period (Lettre aux paysans sur la pauvreté et la paix, Refus d’obéissance, Précisions) only through fictional texts such as the short story from 1925, "Ivan Ivanovitch Kossiakoff" or the 1931 novel, Le Grand troupeau. Published in 1951, Le Hussard sur le toit, whose main theme is the epic crossing of Provence in 1838 by a young Italian hussars during a cholera epidemic, maintains a close analogical relationship with the war. Conflicts and epidemics reveal the best and the worst in humans by functioning as powerful reagents that will inspire the work of Jean Giono. It is this journey under the sign of war and peace that will be discussed in this article.