Posthumous narrative in modern fiction

The article considers the narration by the dead person realizing the “impossible”, according to Roland Barthes, uttering, where the distance (between Life and Death) is affirmed in order to be better denied. Due to the lack of a stable Russian-language term for this type of narration, the term “posthumous narrative” is proposed. A brief analysis of the literature on the issue is carried out, including the discussion (and rejection) of the concept of “unnatural narrative”. The possibilities and limitations of posthumous narration are described (in the aspect of speech representation, system of points of view, system of characters, plot, and chronotope); the motifs and plot complex associated with this type of narrative is revealed (the hero’s journey to the underworld; “resurrection after death”; bad infinity; wandering through the fractal labyrinths of the world of the dead and the figure of the guide; violent death and restless spirit; trial conducted by the dead narrator on themselves and other people; motif of the doubles, one of which is alive and the other is dead; motif of epiphany, i.e. flash of understanding, etc.). Based on the scientific works by Olga Freidenberg, the genesis of the posthumous narration is outlined; its sources are traced to the archaic cult of the dead, mythological stories about the journeys to the underworld, the genre of “dialogues of the dead” with their satirical tendency (which is also evident in the modern posthumous narratives), and ancient first-person epitaphs relating the episodes of the life and the circumstances of the death of the deceased. Those observations are made on a wide range of texts of world literature, mainly of the 20th and 21st centuries.