De Langlois a Tringlot : l'effet-personnage dans les Chroniques romanesques de Jean Giono

Abstract

The subject-matter of this monographic work is the analysis and attempt to classify the characters in selected Chroniques romanesques by Jean Giono. What served as a theoretical model was a scheme formulated by V. Jouve based on the analysis of the reception of the character by the reader (“l'effet-personnage”). The introduction contains the information on the research aims of the work in question, as well as a description of the model of the analysis of a literary character in the light of the history of the studies researching the very phenomenon. Chapter I includes a short presentation of writer's works, an emphasis being put on the characteristic of Chroniques romanesques as a genre, as well as the role it plays in Jean Giono's novel writings, and in the history of the 20th century novel. The second chapter comprises a detailed analysis of the main characters from selected works: Langlois, Thérèse, le Narrateur, M. Joseph, Ennemonde and Tringlot. The analysis covered the way the reader perceives the literary character (la perception), the reception of the character by the reader (la réception), and the influence the author exerts on the reader by means of his/her character (l'implication). Three levels of reading were distinguished. Based on them, the character is perceived as lectant jouant (the reader pays his/her attention to predictions concerning a further course of events), lectant interprétant (a hermeneutic analysis of the character), lisant (the reader perceives the character as existing in reality), and lu (the reader experiences the situations which he/she would not be able to face in reality). The “l'effet-personnage” analysis in Chroniques romanesques indicated the presence of some characteristic features. The characters are presented merely in a fragmentary way, which, according to Ph. Hamon, differs from a model of the analysis of a literary character. Their construction is conventionally based on understatements, and it is the reader's task to interpret the characters' actions. A fragmentary presentation of characters is additionally escalated by means of an oral nature of narration of Chroniques..., as well as a presentation of the story reported from different and subjective points of view. Despite the fact that Giono's characters were not created according to a classic model, i.e. assuming the most detailed description of characters, the writer pays a lot of attention to the presentation of their psychology, the image of which often emerge at an intersection of different points of view concerning the supporting characters performing the function of “personnages-évaluateurs” — the evaluating characters. Also, the “l'effet-personnage” analysis allowed for a demonstration of the character evolution. It is based on the characters' search of entertainment (divertissement) in a Pascal's sense, but interpreted from an atheistic perspective as the action to divert someone's attention from boredom and hopelessness of the human existence. One can observe the evolution, starting from Langlois, the character from Un Roi sans divertissement, who, scared by his fascination with the sight of blood and cruelty, chooses the only possible solution, i.e. suicide, to Tringlot, the character from the last Chronique, who finds happiness in love to an autistic Absent character (l'Absente). The analysis of characters playing in Chroniques romanesques allowed for a demonstration of the coherence of Jean Giono's work despite the fact that the writer did not create it according to the previously-formulated scheme. At the same time, it highlighted the influence W. Faulkner had on the writer from Manosque, especially his method consisting in understatements. Though one should remember that Giono's writings are far from repeating fixed schemes as the writer creates his own original style and, thus, significantly inscribes into the evolution of the 20th century novel.