Patrimoines gioniens éd. by Michel Bertrand et André Not

Abstract

Reviewed by: Patrimoines gioniens éd. by Michel Bertrand et André Not Kathy Comfort Bertrand, Michel, et André Not, éd. Patrimoines gioniens. PU de Provence, 2018. ISBN 979-1-0320-0157-8. Pp. 309. The essays in this volume originate in the 2015 colloquium celebrating the 150th anniversary of Jean Giono's birth. Bringing to the forefront manuscripts and archival materials, these scholarly contributions approach the author's work from a genetic perspective. The opening section, "Manuscrits," offers a glimpse into the holdings in three depositories in Haute Provence, including those at Giono's home in Manosque. Giono was meticulous about sorting, dating, and filing his personal papers, making him an "archiviste-écrivain" (11) who left behind a treasure trove for researchers interested in the minutiae of his life and work. In her contribution to this volume, Jacqueline Ursch describes in detail the documents available for consultation. Jean-Yves Laurichesse digs into Giono's private library in his discussion of "les pages de garde," on which Giono dashed off his impressions of the work while also jotting down ideas for his own projects. The "pages de garde" are unique in that they are situated "à la croisée du lire et de l'écrire, au cœur donc des processus d'influence, de réminiscence ou d'interetextualité proprement dite" (29). Translation is the focus of part two, which opens with a discussion of the Spanish translator of Giono's Voyage en Espagne, the groundwork for his cinematic adaptation of Juan Ramón Jiménez's Platero y yo. Grégoire Lacaze's interview with a recent translator of Colline, Paul Eprile, reveals the richness of the novel's imagery and vocabulary as well as the challenges they pose to a faithful rendering in English. Veritable tours de force of la critique génétique, the articles in this section provide insight into Giono's creative process, making them worthy of inclusion in writing and translation courses. The studies in "Matériaux géo-graphiques" examine Giono's transformation of geographic reality into the Provence of his fictional works, a subject which, it must be said, is not without precedent. Audrey and Alain Tissut's piece "Sous la colline, la tranchée" is a highlight of the part on "Matériaux historiques du récit." The authors convincingly argue that in Colline, published two years before the decidedly anti-war Le grand troupeau, the "déplacement de l'espace de la guerre vers les campagnes provençales est le moyen d'une interrogation profonde de l'auteur sur l'universalité de la guerre et les conditions de sa légitimité" (219). The section titled "Matériaux mythiques" retreads a path already taken by the likes of Jacques Chabot and Philippe Mottet as it revisits Giono's allusions to and borrowings from classical literature. The heart of this final section is "Naissance de l'Odyssée," in which Michel Bertrand masterfully demonstrates how Giono found his writerly voice "en empruntant la voie tracée par ses pères et en lui imprimant le rythme [End Page 256] de son propre pas" (283). While not all articles in the tome can be qualified as ground-breaking, they are without exception solidly researched and engaging, delivering on the promise to "oppos[er] aux tenants un peu naïfs d'un Giono 'régionaliste' l'idée contradictoire que l'écrivain ne s'est 'jamais servi du patrimoine provençal'. C'est l'invention elle-même qui est ici devenue un patrimoine" (8). Kathy Comfort University of Arkansas Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French