Abstract
The article highlights the impact of Freud’s ideas on the Ukrainian prose between the Two World Wars. The analysis of the works by V. Pidmohylnyi and I. Cherniava shows that in literary texts, the erotic-death paradigm is one of the ‘modernist’ algorithms for plot development; in the novellas, this paradigm affects the process of conflict modeling and conflict development.
 It is rightly believed that V. Pidmohylnyi’s dominant literary interest was the ‘helplessness of human morality before the temptations of crime’. In the novella analyzed in this study, Pidmohylnyi adopts the perspective of the ontogenesis of the human soul at the age of puberty. I. Cherniava explores the theme of subconscious ‘temptation of crime’ a wicked and thoughtless children’s game is sure to unleash. The two stories have many features in common: they are thematically close; in both of them, the plot is based on the Freudian ideas; stylistically, they are realist-oriented works with certain elements of naturalism. The novellas belong to the same type of structurally modified literary works, in which the action is no more important than the resultant psychic changes in the characters.
 In both novellas, the plot is built around stable structural-behavioural patterns of human culture (in Vania, it is the initiation trial pattern; in The Execution, the perverse play pattern, the game of a trial transformed into a crime). Both works have rather specific expositions, which fulfill the function of ‘Vorgeschichte’ – they tell a reader about certain psychic inclinations of the characters and present the projection of the central theme. In both novellas, the plot type, which determines the development of action, is outlined in the prehistory. Structurally, the two novellas are based on parallelism of events. As to their style, both works bear the features of naturalism
Highlights
The plot is built around stable structural-behavioural patterns of human culture
The plot type, which determines the development of action, is outlined in the prehistory
The erotic-death paradigm of social ontology developed in Freud’s major works becomes one of the general algorithms for plot construction in the literature between the Two World Wars; this paradigm determines the nature of conflict and its development in prose pieces
Summary
The plot is built around stable structural-behavioural patterns of human culture (in Vania, it is the initiation trial pattern; in The Execution, the perverse play pattern, the game of a trial transformed into a crime). In Vania, one of his early works, the author depicts the reaction of a child (deep neurosis) to the manifestation of the dark side of his subconscious nature – ‘alienation that takes the form of an individual’s confrontation with himself’
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