The Myth of Oblivion in Boris Vian’s Novel “The Red Grass”

Abstract

DOI 10.18522/2072-0181-2015-159-164 The purpose of this article is to research the essential motives Boris Vian novel “The Red Grass” in their relations with myths and various forms of the grotesque. The methodology of work is determined by the tradition of historical and literary research. The fi ctional novel’s world is considered in the context of grotesque and absurdist pataphysical aesthetics, of Surrealists experience in the language and thinking, of “consciously creating literature-games” idea. It is shown that the innovative mythical archetypes interpretation is necessary for author in his attempt to comprehend the absurdity of existence and at the same time to show the desperate searching of human absolute. Mythological pretexts transmit the author creative thoughts, help to show the attempts of the person to define himself in the world, more precisely in one self’s acceptance in the world and acceptance of the world, the Universe in one self. It is revealed that mythological images are used to create the deep layer of the works associated with the fundamentals of existence and non-existence. The twentieth century human drama, showed by Boris Vian in the novel “The Red Grass” on the Wolf`s example consists in the fact that the person is not able to identify itself. The author emphasizes the protagonist existence absurdity due to the loss of life reasons. The hero feels form and life dualism, masks extremity, inner aspiration for the authentic existence and it`s impossibility. Myths of the peoples of the world are full of stories about oblivion. Vian modernizes them: the symbol of oblivion is not natural or mystical elements, but the result of human creation – machine invented by Wolf. In the novel the oppositions of life and death, top and bottom are opposed to the common notion, which found its expression in many myths and in the Dante`s poem. If the Dante`s “Comedy” has a profound, optimistic sense, refl ects the author`s aspiration for the world harmony, the Vian`s novel is anti-utopia. There is no place for any new ideas, there is no way to Heaven in it, “oblivion” is not the path to the memory of good deeds. Wolf’s oblivion means death and emptiness. The second birth of the hero, his reincarnation is devoid of the memory of last life experience psychiatrist Jaquemort (novel “Heartsnatcher”), hungry for new content. Because of the past oblivion of himself, in his new incarnation he will catch carrion from the river memory by his mouth, remembering and digesting the human shame, fi lling by it, endlessly suffering and repenting for the somebody else’s sins.