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Abstract: The article is devoted to the work of the Swiss writer Urs Widmer in the European philosophical context of the 20th century. The works of the author are considered according to the principle of the hermeneutic circle in the philosophical discourse of the epoch. Contemporary western philosophy had a great impact on the works of Urs Widmer. Anthropocentrism, which is a typical feature of existentialism, the protest against rationalism, the unique character of a complex and controversial individual, postulated by the philosophy of life, can be found in Urs Widmer’s works; as an example of analysis, the author chooses the novel “Forschungsreise”. Urs Widmer’s concern for myths, especially for trivial myths, which is expressed in his fiction, for example, in the novels “Im Kongo”, “Liebesbrief für Mary”, “Leben als Zwerg”, as well as in his essays and criticism, is examined on the basis of Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious and archetypes. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of trivial myths as well as their presence as intertextual components in Urs Widmer’s works. The article analyzes intertextuality as a special phenomenon in Widmer’s works within the framework of postmodernist philosophy as well as other postmodern methods. Postmodernist philosophy is positioned as the starting point for the survey of Urs Widmer’s works within the Swiss socio-cultural context of the 20th century.