From Passionate Catharsis to Aesthetic Catharsis in The Romantic Chronicles of Jean Giono
Abstract
In a world governed by passions and instincts, any utopian project can only fail. Jean Giono, from Un roi sans divertissement to L’Iris de Suse, takes on the role of revealing the human heart, like Machiavelli, and of identifying its excesses. Boredom, entertainment and violence suddenly become inseparable from romantic creation which thinks of the human condition without transcendence. This is how the Gionian creative imagination evolves aesthetically according to historical tragedies and explores the resources of romanticism with a view to re-enchanting the world, resources capable of making the world habitable. The romanticism of desertion therefore allows Giono to take a saving distance from the upheavals of History since he sees in art the only response to the miserable condition of man.
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