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Abstract:

The article considers mythological space in Boris Vian’s novels using the methodological approach applied by Andrey F. Kofman in the analysis of Latin American literature. In accordance with Roland Barthes’s expansion of the concept of myth, applying it not only to ancient cultures, but also to modern society, this article examines mythologism in Vian’s novels, identifying its several levels: the upper level is the new myth (cultural and historical features of the era, including cultural borrowings, synthesis of arts); the middle level is the European cultural and social heritage; the lower level is universal, represented by archaic myth, archetypes and symbols. The key element of Vian’s style is a game with the reader in the unique space of texts, in which cultural identity appears as a myth of reality, created and simultaneously destroyed by the author. The dynamics of the development of Vian’s novels are explicated — from the playing out of archaic myths and the wide application of the new myth and cultural heritage to a move away from the mythologization of the fruits of civilization towards the sacred and basic universal archetypes of philosophical understanding of reality.