On the canonical name of the poem in prose Dead Souls [Myortvye dushi], skulls, vignettes, and paraphrase

Abstract

The article argues in favour of bringing back the original full title of Gogol's epic poem in prose, namely The Adventures/Wanderings of Chichikov, or Dead Souls [Pokhozhdeniya Chichikova, ili Myortvye dushi]. Once reduced, the title emphasizes stagnancy and rigidity, but loses what is essential for the novel's plot: the potential eidos of movement, road, and wandering. The scholar examines the semantics of the cover of the separate edition of Dead Souls and its connection with the full name of this Gogol masterpiece. Compared in the new context are the book's beginning and ending, with a new interpretation offered for ‘the bird-troika' as well as for the wheel: it is shown how the latter represents a sacred circle prototype in addition to familiar secular connotations. The author follows the poem's paraphrastic context which connects it with Dante's Divina Commedia and is not limited to motifs, reminiscences, and identic plotlines, but highlights the general Christian meaning of the paschal conclusion of a mortal life, interpreted differently by the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox cultural traditions, represented by Dante and Gogol, respectively.