Nikolay Gogol Николай Гоголь
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Transcript of Nikolay Gogol Николай Гоголь
Nikolay GogolНиколай Гоголь
1809-1852
The Ukrainian Genius
• Born near Poltava, Ukraine• Father a petty nobleman• School in Nezhin• 1828 leaves for St Petersburg• 1831 Cycle of Ukrainian stories Evenings on a Farm
near Dikanka• 1834-35 Professor of Medieval history in St
Petersburg.• 1835 More Ukrainian stories: Mirgorod
The Russian theme
• 1836 The Government Inspector: supposedly based on an anecdote from Pushkin. Instant success.
• 1836 Arabesques, a cycle of stories about St Petersburg.
• 1836 “The Nose.”
• 1842 “The Overcoat.”
Classical works
• 1836-1848 lived abroad, in France, then Italy, settled in Rome.
• 1841 Dead Souls, Part 1 published, immediate success.
• 1842 “The Overcoat.”
Last years
• 1847 Selected passages from Letters to Friends.
• 1848 Visited Palestine before returning to Russia.
• Depression and physical decline.
How to understand Gogol?
• Lyrical, poetic attachment to Ukraine and its customs, attachment to Ukrainian friends
• Fear of death, of being buried alive
• Deep religiosity, mysticism
• In last years became more and more reactionary, Slavophile
• “Sexual labyrinth” – never married, dominated by mother
Gogol’s apocalyptic vision
• Dark vision of the world as a “fallen” one ruled by the Devil
• Characters are “petty demons,” masks filled with vices, not realistic psychological portraits
• People “vrut” – lie, tell fibs, fantasize • Satire has an ultimate purpose – to find the
solution to the world’s imperfection• In last part of Dead Souls and in Selected
passages tried to envisage a reformed world
His writings
• Fantastic, surreal world
• Looks forward to the writings of Franz Kafka
• Unerring portraits of Russian types: Nozdrev, Manilov, Korobochka in Dead Souls
• Gift of language: long riffs, extended metaphors
• “He writes like the Devil” – i.e., instinctively
The Grotesque
• Hyperbole
• non sequiturs
• illogical, non-linear progression of narrative.
• absurdities
• random switching from one image or event to another without apparent motivation
• characters’ conversations are at cross purposes, full of misunderstandings
“The Overcoat”Шинель
1842
Significance
• Dostoevsky declared: “We all emerged from under Gogol’s ‘Overcoat.’”
• A key text in the St Petersburg theme
A Denunciation
• Vissarion Belinsky, socialist critic, saw in the tale the denunciation of the tsarist system.
• Plight of the “little man” crushed by the system
• Interpretation becomes the standard one in Soviet interpretations: beginning of “critical realism” – the forerunner of Socialist Realism
• Is it realistic?
Who or what is the “hero”?
• St Petersburg?
• Akaky Akakievich?
• Petrovich?
• The Important person?
• The Overcoat?
St Petersburg
• Its weather, its lack of comfort.
• It symbolic role as the bureaucratic machine.
• The ranking of individuals according to their position in society.
• The topography of the city: bridges and squares.
• The gap between the pretensions and the squalid reality.
The “Humans”
• Vices, pleasures and foibles.
• Vanity.
• Alcohol.
• Gossip.
• Sex.
• Snuff.
Akaky Akakievich
• Who is he?
• What are his circumstances?
• What changes does he go through?
Petrovich the tailor
• His description.
• His origins
• His vices
• The significant detail
The Important Person
• His recent promotion
• His interpretation of his function
• His family circumstances
• His “punishment”
The Important Person
• His recent promotion.
• His interpretation of his function.
• His family circumstances.
• His “punishment.”
The Important Person
• His recent promotion.
• His interpretation of his function.
• His family circumstances.
• His “punishment.”
Another hero…
• The Overcoat as hero.
• Pushes out the old overcoat.
The Important Person
• His recent promotion.
• His interpretation of his function.
• His family circumstances.
• His “punishment.”
Another hero…
• The Overcoat as hero.
• Pushes out the old overcoat.
“How the Overcoat is made”
• The overcoat as a metaphor for the work itself.
• “metapoetic.” – describes itself.
• cf Nos / Son (Dream).
• The details of the making of the overcoat reflect the details of the making of the story: lovingly sown together out of bits and pieces.
• The old overcoat and the new as metaphors or masks.
The Important Person
• His recent promotion.
• His interpretation of his function.
• His family circumstances.
• His “punishment.”
Another hero…
• The Overcoat as hero.
• Pushes out the old overcoat.
“How the Overcoat is made”
• The overcoat as a metaphor for the work itself.
• “metapoetic.” – describes itself.
• cf Nos / Son (Dream).
• The details of the making of the overcoat reflect the details of the making of the story: lovingly sown together out of bits and pieces.
• The old overcoat and the new as metaphors or masks.
The narrator
• Ironical self-portrait of the author.
• Constant self-references. Authors
• “lies” (врёт): his fantasies.