Nikolai Gogol
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| :''[[Gogol's legacy]], [[Bibliography of Nikolai Gogol]]'' | :''[[Gogol's legacy]], [[Bibliography of Nikolai Gogol]]'' | ||
| '''Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol''' ([[April 1]], [[1809]] — [[March 4]], [[1852]]) was a [[Russian literature|Russian-language writer]] of [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] origin. Although his early works were heavily influenced by his [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] heritage and upbringing, he wrote in [[Russian language|Russian]] and his works belong to the tradition of [[Russian literature]]. The novel ''[[Dead Souls]]'' (1842), the play ''[[Revizor]]'' (1836, 1842), and the short story ''[[The Overcoat]]'' (1842) and ''[[The Nose]]'' count among his masterpieces. | '''Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol''' ([[April 1]], [[1809]] — [[March 4]], [[1852]]) was a [[Russian literature|Russian-language writer]] of [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] origin. Although his early works were heavily influenced by his [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]] heritage and upbringing, he wrote in [[Russian language|Russian]] and his works belong to the tradition of [[Russian literature]]. The novel ''[[Dead Souls]]'' (1842), the play ''[[Revizor]]'' (1836, 1842), and the short story ''[[The Overcoat]]'' (1842) and ''[[The Nose]]'' count among his masterpieces. | ||
| - | ==Influence and interpretations== | ||
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| - | Even before the publication of ''Dead Souls'', Belinsky recognized Gogol as the first realist writer in the language and the head of the [[Natural School]], to which he also assigned such younger or lesser authors as [[Ivan Goncharov|Goncharov]], [[Ivan Turgenev|Turgenev]], [[Dmitry Grigorovich]], [[Vladimir Dahl]], and [[Vladimir Sollogub]]. Gogol himself seemed to be skeptical about the existence of such a literary movement. Although he recognized "several young writers" who "have shown a particular desire to observe real life", he upbraided the deficient composition and style of their works. Nevertheless, subsequent generations of radical critics celebrated Gogol (the author in whose world a nose roams the streets of the Russian capital) as a great realist, a reputation decried by the ''[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]'' as "the triumph of Gogolesque irony". | ||
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| - | The period of [[modernism]] saw a revival of interest in and a change of attitude towards Gogol's work. One of the pioneering works of [[Russian formalism]] was [[Boris Eichenbaum|Eichenbaum]]'s reappraisal of ''The Overcoat''. In the 1920s, a group of Russian short story writers, known as the [[Serapion Brothers]], placed Gogol among their precursors and consciously sought to imitate his techniques. The leading novelists of the period — notably [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]] and [[Mikhail Bulgakov]] — also admired Gogol and followed in his footsteps. In 1926, [[Vsevolod Meyerhold]] staged ''[[The Government Inspector]]'' as a "comedy of the absurd situation", revealing to his fascinated spectators a corrupt world of endless self-deception. In 1934, [[Andrei Bely]] published the most meticulous study of Gogol's literary techniques up to that date, in which he analyzed the colours prevalent in Gogol's work depending on the period, his impressionistic use of verbs, expressive discontinuity of his syntax, complicated rhythmical patterns of his sentences, and many other secrets of his craft. Based on this work, [[Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov|Vladimir Nabokov]] published a summary account of Gogol's masterpieces in 1944. | ||
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| - | Gogol's impact on Russian literature has been enduring, yet his works have been appreciated differently by various critics. [[Belinsky]], for instance, berated his horror stories as "moribund, monstrous works", while [[Andrei Bely]] counted them among his most stylistically daring creations. Nabokov singled out ''Dead Souls'', ''The Government Inspector'', and ''The Overcoat'' as the works of genius and dismissed the remainder as puerile essays. The latter story has been traditionally interpreted as a masterpiece of "humanitarian realism", but Nabokov and some other attentive readers argued that "holes in the language" make the story susceptible to another interpretation, as a supernatural tale about a ghostly double of a "small man". (At least this reading of the story seems to have been on Dostoevsky's mind when he wrote ''[[The Double: A Petersburg Poem|The Double]]''. The quote, often apocryphally attributed to him, that "we all [future generations of Russian novelists] emerged from Gogol's ''Overcoat''", actually refers to those few who read ''The Overcoat'' as a double-bottom ghost story (as did [[Aleksey Remizov]], judging by his story ''The Sacrifice'').) Of all Gogol's stories, ''[[The Nose]]'' has stubbornly defied all abstruse interpretations: [[D.S. Mirsky]] declared it "a piece of sheer play, almost sheer nonsense". | ||
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| - | Gogol's oeuvre has also had a large impact on Russia's non-literary culture, and his stories have been [[Bibliography of Nikolai Gogol#Adaptations|adapted numerous times]] into opera and film. Russian Composer [[Alfred Schnittke]] wrote the eight part [[Gogol Suite]] as [[incidental music]] to the ''[[The Government Inspector#Other adaptations|The Government Inspector]]'' performed as a [[Play (theater)|play]], and composer [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] set ''[[The Nose]]'' as his first opera in 1930, despite the peculiar choice of subject for what was meant to initiate the great tradition of Soviet opera. Most recently, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Gogol's birth, Vienna's renowned [[Theater an der Wien]] commissioned music and libretto for a full length opera on the life of Gogol from Russian composer and writer [[Lera Auerbach]]. | ||
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| - | In [[Marathi]], [[P. L. Deshpande]] adapted his play "The Government Inspector" as "''Ammaldar''" (literally 'the Government Inspector') in late 1950s, skillfully cladding it with all indigenous politico-cultural robe of [[Maharashtra]], while maintaining the comic satire of the original. | ||
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| - | Some attention has also been given to Gogol's apparent [[anti-Semitism]] in his writings, as well as those of his contemporary, [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]. Felix Dreizin and David Guaspari, for example, in their ''The Russian Soul and the Jew: Essays in Literary Ethnocentricis'' discuss "the significance of the Jewish characters and the negative image of the Ukrainian Jewish community in Gogol's novel "Taras Bulba," pointing out Gogol's attachment to anti-Jewish prejudices prevalent in Russian and Ukrainian culture." In Leon Poliakov's ''The History of Antisemitism'', the author mentions that "The 'Yankel' from ''Taras Bulba'' indeed became the archetypal Jew in Russian literature. Gogol painted him as supremely exploitative, cowardly, and repulsive, albeit capable of gratitude. But it seems perfectly natural in the story that he and his cohorts be drowned in the Dniper by the Cossack lords. Above all, Yankel is ridiculous, and the image of the plucked chicken that Gogol used has made the rounds of great Russian authors." | ||
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| - | == Bibliography of Nikolai Gogol == | ||
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| - | *''[[Ode to Italy]]'' (1829, poem) | ||
| - | *''[[Hanz Küchelgarten]]'' (1829, narrative poem, published under the pseudonym "V. Alov") | ||
| - | *''[[Woman (Gogol)|Woman]]'' (1830, short story) | ||
| - | *''[[Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka]]'' (Volume I, 1831, short story collection) | ||
| - | **''[[Preface (collection opening)]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[The Fair at Sorochintsï (short story)]]'' (the basis for [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky's]] [[The Fair at Sorochintsï|opera of the same name]]) | ||
| - | **''[[St. John's Eve (short story)]]'' (the basis for [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky's]] orchestral work best known under the title ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'') | ||
| - | **''[[May Night or the Drowned Maiden]]'' (the basis for [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov's]] [[May Night|opera of the same name]] and of [[Mykola Lysenko]]'s opera ''The Drowned Maiden'' [''Utoplena'']) | ||
| - | **''[[The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...Church]]'' | ||
| - | *''[[Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka]]'' (Volume II, 1832, short story collection) | ||
| - | **''[[Preface (collection opening, Volume II)]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[Christmas Eve (Gogol)|Christmas Eve]]'' (the basis for several operas, including [[Pyotr Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky's]] ''[[Cherevichki]]'' (the revised version of ''[[Vakula the Smith]]''), [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov's]] [[Christmas Eve (Rimsky-Korsakov)|opera of the same name]], and [[Mykola Lysenko]]'s like-named (in Ukrainian) ''Rivnaja nič'') | ||
| - | **''[[A Terrible Vengeance]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[Ivan Fedorovic Sponka and his Aunt]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[A Bewitched Place]]'' | ||
| - | *''[[Mirgorod (Gogol)|Mirgorod]]'' (1835, short story collection, published in two volumes) | ||
| - | **''[[The Old World Landowners]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[Taras Bulba]]'' (the basis for an opera of the same name by [[Mykola Lysenko]]) | ||
| - | **''[[Viy (story)|Viy]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich]]'' | ||
| - | *''[[Arabesques]]'' (1835, short story collection) | ||
| - | **''[[The Portrait (short story)]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[A Chapter from an Historical Novel]]'' (fragment) | ||
| - | **''[[Nevsky Prospekt (story)|Nevsky Prospect]]'' | ||
| - | **''[[The Prisoner (Gogol)|The Prisoner]]'' (fragment) | ||
| - | **''[[Diary of a Madman (short story)]]'' | ||
| - | *''[[The Nose]]'' (1836, short story, the basis for an [[The Nose (opera)|opera]] by [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]) | ||
| - | *''[[The Carriage]]'' (1836, short story) | ||
| - | *''[[The Government Inspector]]'' (1836, play, a.k.a. ''The Inspector General'') | ||
| - | *''[[Leaving the Theater]]'' (1842, essay) | ||
| - | *''[[Rome (Gogol)|Rome]]'' (1842, fragment) | ||
| - | *''[[The Overcoat (short story)|The Overcoat]]'' (1842, short story) | ||
| - | *''[[Zhenitba (play)|Zhenitba]]'' (or ''Zhenit'ba'' – ''The Marriage'', 1842, comedy, play, the first act of which was adapted by [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]] as an opera of [[Zhenitba (opera)|the same name]], completed by [[Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov]]) | ||
| - | *''[[Dead Souls]]'' (1842, novel) | ||
| - | *''[[The Gamblers]]'' (1843, play) | ||
| - | *''[[Selected Passages from Correspondence with his Friends]]'' (1847, collection of letters and essays) | ||
| - | **''[[Meditations on the Divine Liturgy]]'' | ||
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| - | == Adaptations ==<!-- This section is linked from [[Nikolai Gogol]] --> | ||
| - | === Film === | ||
| - | * [[1913 in film|1913]]—''[[The Night Before Christmas (1913 film)|The Night Before Christmas]]'', a 41-minute film by [[Ladislas Starevich]] which contains some of the first combinations of [[stop motion]] animation with live action | ||
| - | * [[1926 in film|1926]]—''[[The Overcoat (1926 film)|The Overcoat]]'', a Soviet silent film directed by [[Grigori Kozintsev]] and [[Leonid Trauberg]] | ||
| - | * [[1945 in film|1945]]—''[[The Lost Letter]]'', the Soviet Union's first [[feature film|feature]]-length [[traditional animation|traditionally-animated]] film | ||
| - | * [[1949 in film|1949]]—''[[The Inspector General (film)|The Inspector General]]'', a musical comedy and very loose adaptation directed by [[Henry Koster]] and starring [[Danny Kaye]]. | ||
| - | *[[1951 in film|1951]]—''[[The Night Before Christmas (1951 film)|The Night Before Christmas]]'', an [[list of animated feature films|animated feature film]] directed by the Brumberg sisters | ||
| - | *[[1952 in film|1952]]—''[[Il Cappotto]]'', an [[Italy|Italian]] film directed by [[Alberto Lattuada]] | ||
| - | *[[1959 in film|1959]]—''[[The Overcoat (1959 film)|The Overcoat]]'', a Soviet film directed by [[Aleksey Batalov]] | ||
| - | *[[1962 in film|1962]]—''[[Taras Bulba (film)|Taras Bulba]]'', a [[Yugoslavia]]n/American film directed by [[J. Lee Thompson]] | ||
| - | *[[1963 in film|1963]]—''The Nose'', a short film by [[Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker]] using [[pinscreen animation]] | ||
| - | *[[1967 in film|1967]]—''[[Viy]]'', a horror film made on [[Mosfilm]] and based on the [[Nikolai Gogol]] story of the same name. | ||
| - | *[[1984 in film|1984]]—''[[Dead Souls (1984 film)|Dead Souls]]'', directed by [[Mikhail Shveytser]] | ||
| - | *[[1997 in film|1997]]—''[[The Night Before Christmas (1997 film)|The Night Before Christmas]]'', a 26-minute stop-motion-animated film [http://www.animator.ru/db/?ver=eng&p=show_film&fid=1814] | ||
| - | *20??—''[[The Overcoat (animated film)|The Overcoat]]'', an upcoming film by acclaimed animator [[Yuriy Norshteyn]], being worked on since 1981 | ||
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| - | ===Opera=== | ||
| - | *1874—''[[Vakula the Smith]]'', an opera by [[Pyotr Tchaikovsky]] | ||
| - | *1880—''[[May Night]]'', an opera by [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]] | ||
| - | *1885—''[[Cherevichki]]'', Tchaikovsky's revision of ''Vakula the Smith'' | ||
| - | *1906—''[[Zhenitba (opera)|Zhenitba]]'', an unfinished opera begun in 1868 by [[Modest Mussorgsky]] | ||
| - | *1917—''[[The Fair at Sorochyntsi]]'', an unfinished opera begun in 1874 by [[Modest Mussorgsky]] and first completed by [[César Cui]] - many different versions exist | ||
| - | *1930—''[[The Nose (opera)|The Nose]]'', a satirical opera by [[Dmitri Shostakovich]] | ||
| - | *1976—''[[Dead Souls#Opera|Dead Souls]]'', an opera by Russian nationalist composer [[Rodion Shchedrin]] | ||
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| - | === Other === | ||
| - | * [[2006]]—''[[Dead_Souls#Radio_adaptation|Dead Souls]]'', a [[BBC]] radio adaptation | ||
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| ==Gogol in popular culture== | ==Gogol in popular culture== | ||
| * [[Gypsy punk]] band [[Gogol Bordello]] is named after Gogol. Lead singer [[Eugene Hütz]] is [[Ukrainian Language|Ukrainian]] and wrote the introduction for the Subculture Books release of [[Taras Bulba]] in 2008. | * [[Gypsy punk]] band [[Gogol Bordello]] is named after Gogol. Lead singer [[Eugene Hütz]] is [[Ukrainian Language|Ukrainian]] and wrote the introduction for the Subculture Books release of [[Taras Bulba]] in 2008. | ||
Revision as of 15:25, 31 March 2009
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Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (April 1, 1809 — March 4, 1852) was a Russian-language writer of Ukrainian origin. Although his early works were heavily influenced by his Ukrainian heritage and upbringing, he wrote in Russian and his works belong to the tradition of Russian literature. The novel Dead Souls (1842), the play Revizor (1836, 1842), and the short story The Overcoat (1842) and The Nose count among his masterpieces.
Gogol in popular culture
- Gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello is named after Gogol. Lead singer Eugene Hütz is Ukrainian and wrote the introduction for the Subculture Books release of Taras Bulba in 2008.
- James Bond Ally Anatol Gogol is named in celebration of Nikolai Gogol. The General appeared in all of Roger Moore's James Bond films between The Spy Who Loved Me and A View to a Kill, and in Timothy Dalton' s debut as Bond in The Living Daylights; he was portrayed by late German actor Walter Gotell, previously known as Morzeny in the second Connery Bond movie From Russia with Love.
- His novel Dead Souls gave its name to the Joy Division song.
- The main character in The Namesake is named after Gogol. The name is part of the central theme of the story.
- Jon Krakauer mentions in his book Into the Wild that Christopher McCandless carried a book by Gogol.
- In the "Charlie" episode from the first series of the British comedy series "The Mighty Boosh", character Howard Moon is seen holding Gogol's "Dead Souls" when talking about becoming a writer with Vince Noir, and later uses the book to spy on the keeper of the Reptile House, Mrs Gideon.
- On March 19, 2009 the National bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin dedicated to Nikolai Gogol.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Nikolai Gogol" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
