Експресіоністський стиль роману Жана Жіоно «Велика отара»

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the stylistic peculiarities of the novel of the French writer Jean Giono «Big Flock» (1931) dedicated to the events of World War I. The article proposes to use the Gaston Bashlar’s conception «The Poetics of Fire» as a methodology for the research of the expressive style. In the French criticism there is an idea about stylistic sophistication of this work, which is defined as a model of the tragic naturalism. It is suggested to look at the style of this work from the point of view of the poetics of expressionism. It is shown that the work of J. Giono is an example of «the ardent language», which contains the bright «The Poetics of Fire» and many other means of expressionist style. The novel «Big Flock» is called an amazing work of world literature on the endlessly elaborated theme of the war 1914. According to the French criticism, the novel is written in the spirit of the tragic naturalism. In a novel hatred for a civilization that has shed so much blood is expressed with utmost power. We intend to prove the consistently expressionistic nature of this work. If we use Gaston Bashlar's concept of «Poetics of Fire» as a methodology to identify the expressionist style, it is precisely the dominant archetype of fire that will enable to move the novel by J. Giono on a style scale from tragic naturalism to expressionism. G. Bashlar is a distinguished French philosopher, cultural scientist, literary scholar of the 20th century who explores dreams, in particular the creative dream described in his work «Psychoanalysis of Fire», which examines the images inspired by the contemplation of the fire. Also in this work, the philosopher identifies specific psychological complexes that allow deeper understanding of poetic works. All the manifestations of the fire G. Bashlar connects with the creative process. The main features of the poetics of expressionism in the novel of J. Giono «Big Flock» are as follows: the active use of the fire image that makes the work an example of «The Poetics of Fire» written by Gaston Bashlyar; the fragmentation of the plot; the inciting of the naturalistic pictures of mutilation and the death; the schematized character-images, the descriptions of human appearance compared to animals; the hyperbolization of every language means; the richness of the multiple tropes, the pervasive allegory of the «great flock», which enables to bring the generalizations to the scale of all humanity, to equalize the human and the animal world as an object of destruction, etc. Apparently, there is no expressionist means that wouldn’t manifest itself in this novel.