Fantastic, psychoanalysis, and pastiche in the latest novels of Boris Vian

The subject of the study is the features of pastiche of psychoanalytic and existential images in the latest novels of Boris Vian. The characteristics of the introduction of pastiche into the fabric of Vian's works demonstrate the innovative development of this technique, which was later recorded in postmodernist criticism. Pastiche in postmodernism is used as a way to talk about culture through its own languages, as a means of play with cultural codes, citation, and rethinking of the past, reflecting the idea of "the death of the author" and intertextuality. Vian's creativity, with its conscious imitation of styles, manners, elements of literary works, and movements in art, reworking already existing forms, permeates his entire literary heritage and, in a certain sense, anticipates postmodernist reflection. The aim of the study is to explicate the postmodern content of the novels "Red Grass" and "Heartfire." The methodology of the work is defined by the tradition of historical-literary research: the writer's creativity is examined in the context of the flourishing of existential philosophy ideas and in connection with the widespread dissemination of psychoanalytic methods characterizing the spiritual processes of his contemporary era. It has been revealed that the blending of fantastical techniques and real problems of personal alienation, integrated into the narrative fabric, allows the author to express his negative attitude and irony toward the "productivity" of psychoanalysis sessions and the "projectiveness" of existentialism ideas. The novelty of the work lies in decoding the meanings embedded by the writer into the existential problem of being in relation to death, the fullness of death, and the threat of obtaining an opposite result to all psychoanalytic attitudes, leading not to the individual's awareness of their problems in a positive direction toward the future, but to an even greater sense of emptiness. The article shows that the fantastic and psychoanalysis in Vian's latest novels intertwine into a unified whole and, behind the facade of the comedic and paradoxical, urge the reader to contemplate the right to intrude into the inner world of a person and the eternal problems of human existence in the world.

Boris Vian, Red Grass, Heartsnatcher, fantastic, pastiche, parody, psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, existentialism, absurdity