The quest of an identity through the body in theworks of Boris Vian
Description
Michel Rybalka was the first critic who in 1969 tried to define the crisis pervading Vian's universe through the figure of the double, in fiction as in reality. My study is an attempt to show how the identity conflicts are expressed through the treatment of the body of his characters and through his themes. Vian's specificity, in his trangressive approach to the body, lies in the very personal fantasy world and poetic dimension that he brings The core of my study bears on the constant juxtaposition of the love for the body and the death or slow destruction of that same body. This painful conflict is an essential component of Vian's world. His obsession with the 'body beautiful' reveals in fact his obsession with death. He focuses on beauty as a means to ward death off. I will show that through the simultaneous representation of a glorified body, and of an abused body, Vian asserts that it is impossible for the individual to become a whole being, free of an existential void I will present the love for the body and for life in a first chapter which I will situate historically. In a second chapter, I will show how the obsessive horror of death appears in the form of old age and disease. I will expose in a third chapter how the search for an identity involves an exploration of the sexual body. In a fourth chapter, I will explain how the quest for identity through the body eventually leads to a feeling of emptiness. It seems that for Vian the concept of emptiness arises from the essential duality of man for whom the body is a mask, biding a profound alienation. Vian is halfway between narcissism and the rejection of himself. What I call narcissism in the context of Vian's work is the double movement that consists first of a self-analysis followed by the desire to find some answers in society, and secondly, after this appeal to society has failed, of a return to one's own image and body leading to despair