Nikolay Gogol Николай Гоголь

1. Nikolay GogolНиколай Гоголь 1809-1852

3. 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

4. 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.”

5. Classical works • 1836-1848 lived abroad, in France, then Italy, settled in Rome. • 1841 Dead Souls, Part 1 published, immediate success. • 1842 “The Overcoat.”

6. Last years • 1847 Selected passages from Letters to Friends. • 1848 Visited Palestine before returning to Russia. • Depression and physical decline.

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. “The Overcoat”Шинель 1842

12. Significance • Dostoevsky declared: “We all emerged from under Gogol’s ‘Overcoat.’” • A key text in the St Petersburg theme

13. 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?

14. Who or what is the “hero”? • St Petersburg? • Akaky Akakievich? • Petrovich? • The Important person? • The Overcoat?

15. 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.

16. The “Humans” • Vices, pleasures and foibles. • Vanity. • Alcohol. • Gossip. • Sex. • Snuff.

17. Akaky Akakievich • Who is he? • What are his circumstances? • What changes does he go through?

18. Petrovich the tailor • His description. • His origins • His vices • The significant detail

19. The Important Person • His recent promotion • His interpretation of his function • His family circumstances • His “punishment”

20. The Important Person • His recent promotion. • His interpretation of his function. • His family circumstances. • His “punishment.”

21. The Important Person • His recent promotion. • His interpretation of his function. • His family circumstances. • His “punishment.”

22. Another hero… • The Overcoat as hero. • Pushes out the old overcoat.

23. The Important Person • His recent promotion. • His interpretation of his function. • His family circumstances. • His “punishment.”

24. Another hero… • The Overcoat as hero. • Pushes out the old overcoat.

25. “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.

26. The Important Person • His recent promotion. • His interpretation of his function. • His family circumstances. • His “punishment.”

27. Another hero… • The Overcoat as hero. • Pushes out the old overcoat.

28. “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.

29. The narrator • Ironical self-portrait of the author. • Constant self-references. Authors • “lies” (врёт): his fantasies.