Il sangue dei camaleonti e la follia dei convulsionari. L’“engagement” di Jean Giono in “Promenade de la mort”

Within the scope of a recent scientific debate that calls into question the traditional separation between the novelist and the political thinker, the article provides a critical interpretation of Promenade de la mort et départ de l’oiseau bagué le 4 septembre 1939 by Jean Giono in light of his sociopolitical ideas. From the thematic and stylistic point of view, Promenade de la mort presents itself as a text of transition from the author’s first to his second period. This evolution is profoundly influenced by the historical events related to Second World War, as well by the biographical events, with the end of the Contadour gatherings and of the pacifist struggles, the two arrests of the author and his inclusion in the black list of the Comité National des Écrivains in 1944. Published for the first time in 1943 within the collection L’Eau vive, the text presents thematic references and intertextual relations with Giono’s pacifist writings of the 1930s. Observing the narrative strategies, a criticism of nationalism on the mimetic level and an aestheticization of war on the diegetic level arise. These considerations reveal the importance of examining Giono’s novels after Second World War in light of his political thought, also in relation to his reading and annotating activity, with a study of the political texts contained in the Manosque library of Le Paraïs.