Elles se rendent pas compte intertextuel et paratextuel: un Chinetoque peut-il en cacher un autre?

Boris Vian’s work has often been described as being heavily reliant on its paratext, be it the famous inclusion of members of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés set as characters, the Affaire Vernon Sullivan or, quite simply, the larger-than-life presence of Vian the man (in his various and multiple roles) behind the text. At the same time, it is also a highly referential body of work, riddled with intertexts, some more apparent, some more carefully concealed. Drawing on the work of Ross Chambers, this article investigates the ways in which the paratext and the intertext interfere with each other in Vian’s work, to the point of merging, becoming effectively indistinguishable. Put simply, we consider how the paratext can hide the intertext, and vice versa. This game of hide-and-seek will also extend to other aspects of the text. For example, Peter Cheyney will be shown to hide James Hadley Chase, and vice versa. More importantly, this leads us to question whether Vernon Sullivan hides Boris Vian, whether Boris Vian hides Vernon Sullivan, or whether, to think along Chambers’s lines, the difference between the two is not rather a question of différance, and thus, arguably, not a difference at all.