Abstract EN:

The aim of this thesis is to study giono's angel as he notably appears in his "transition" works. Following a thematic approach which is both descriptive and reflexive, the study first focuses on the angel figure which, either sent from heaven or as a monster arisen from the depuths of hell, reflects the horrified fascination exerted by sacredness through the violence of aesthetic paradox. A further analysis of the character leads to the conclusion that the angel is none other but a doppelganger, a sublime and luminous double. Hence the angelic love patterns that shape giono's erotic world. This all spiritual relationship between animus and anima (gaston bachelard) gives birth to the poetic word : the messenger is the angel from the imaginary world. Yet a diabolical inversion transforms this heavenly vision into an abysmal figure and the thesis finally explores the modalities of a progressive assimilation of "the monstrous" within the drama of poetic creation. It leads to a mystical conversion to the nocturnal mode of imagination (gilbert durand) which softens the fall into (simple) descent : the "great night of jacob" becomes a fecund night which shapes a "poetic rebirth". Thus giono's angel, who represents the artist, realizes the paradoxical harmony of contrary forces and pleads for a cyclic vision of the world expressed in the baroque aesthetic terms of metamorphosis of which he is an emblematic motif.