From elocution to alienation: A Lacanian reading of Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’

Abstract

Critics have traditionally adopted a humanistic and sentimental approach to Gogol’s work. A Lacanian analysis of Gogol’s ‘The Overcoat’ exposes the failings of other theoretical schools by offering a crucial reconsideration of intersubjectivity in the story. Gogol’s essential challenge of how to exist in a world regulated by verbal exchange becomes evident through a Lacanian reading. If we consider the literary text as a typical insertion of the subject into the symbolic realm, we may analyse through the skaz/narrative, the enunciation, the relationship between Gogol and the alienating structure of the Big Other. Stylistically, the resistance shown in the ambiguous narrative structure helps discredit a socio-sentimentalist theory that suggests emotional attachment for the protagonist.