RUSSIA OF CHICHIKOV AND RUSSIA OF GOGOL IN THE POEM “DEAD SOULS”

Abstract

The paper considers the polysemy of the image of Russia in N. V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls.” It is a new angle of research; its relevance is connected with the reception of the category of church construction allowing to see new characteristics in Gogol’s poetics. The objective of the study is to establish a link between the category of church construction, which manifests itself in the church symbolism, and Gogol’s text poetics. The research methodology presents an attempt to study “Dead Souls” in the context of the Orthodox tradition. On the external pictorial plane, appears the image of Russia, seen by Chichikov. This is the image of provincial Russia, striving to copy “enlightened” Europe, therefore it appears as its counterpart: now as pseudo-Russia, then as pseudo-Europe. A hotel and a tavern are placed in the foreground in Chichikov’s provincial Russia. Chichikov seems to consciously avoid meeting the real Russia, the symbols of which are the church space, its living soul, embodied in nature, songs, and the Russian language. During the travels through the estates of landowners, the image of this caricatural Russia is overgrown with the motifs of vulgar fashion, vulgar art, caused by the imitation of Europe. The anti-aesthetics of a still life in the poem is intended to symbolise the world of the death of the human soul. The growth of infernality is manifested in the motifs of exaggerated physicality in the paintings in the estates of the landowners, in the organisation of their environment. On the outer plane “Dead Souls” act as a guide to the 92 world of death, in which a person with a dead soul is able to reproduce only a similar dead culture. The image of St. Petersburg Russia in the story about Captain Kopeikin appears as if in a kaleidoscope of illusory images: like Semiramis. Persia. America, India. Genuine Russia is manifested in the inner plane of the poem, in the author’s outlook. Its symbols are the language itself, in which culture is created, the Russian spirit, reflected in the songs, the beginninglessness and infinity of Russia, expanding to the vast Universe, heeding Its Creator.