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УДК 821.1б1.1-31(Гоголь Н. В.). DOI 10.51762/1FK-2021-26-01-14. ББК Шзз(2Рос=Рус)5-8, 444. ГРНТИ 17.07.31. Код ВАК 10.01.08
TO THE TYPOLOGY OF FANTASTIC ELEMENTS
IN THE STORIES NEVSKY PROSPECT, THE NOSE AND THE PORTRAIT BY N. V. GOGOL
Andrea Grominova
University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius (Trnava, Slovak Republic) ORCID ID: https://0rcid.0rg/0000-0002-2384-6880
Zina Spacekova
University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius (Trnava, Slovak Republic) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9569-6594
Ab stract. This article is aimed at defining the terms "fantasy" and "fantastic elements" from the point of view of fiction and finding its application in relation to N. V. Gogol's works. The main attention is paid to fantastic elements, their classification, as well as the way they are used in the literary text. The material for the analysis was the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - Nevsky Prospect, the Nose and the Portrait. In this study we use the typological method, with the help of which the common generic features of literary phenomena typical of the fantasy are studied, and their application in the course of analysis. The biographical method helps to reveal the connection between N. V. Gogol and his works filled with fantastic elements. The poetical-structural analysis of the text was undertaken to find intertextual and typological connections between the means of expression in the text and to identify fantastic elements in the selected stories. In the end of the article, the results of the work are summarized and the main conclusions are formulated. On the basis of literary works devoted to the theoretical definition of the terms fantasy and fantastic elements, we came to interesting conclusions. In the story of Nevsky Prospect, we can observe a philosophical and fantastic type of convention. The nature of the story Nose can be attributed to satirical conventions, and in the story the Portrait we can find both philosophical and mythological conventions. In our analysis and interpretation of all of the selected stories, the theme of the characters' duality was substantiated, which had been emphasized in relation to these works by the literary critic J. Dohnal, whose conclusion we agree with. Among other things, we have found that all three selected stories of Gogol are connected by another important link that contributes to the expression of the fantastic in them, namely, a dream, which plays a special role in the work of this writer.
Keywords: fantasy; fantastic elements; definition; N. V. Gogol; typology.
К ТИПОЛОГИИ ФАНТАСТИЧЕСКИХ ЭЛЕМЕНТОВ В ПОВЕСТЯХ «НЕВСКИЙ ПРОСПЕКТ», «НОС» И «ПОРТРЕТ» Н. В. ГОГОЛЯ
Громинова А.
Университет им. Св. Кирилла и Мефодия (Трнава, Республика Словакия) ORCID Ш: https://0rcid.0rg/0000-0002-2384-6880
Шпачекова З.
Университет им. Св. Кирилла и Мефодия (Трнава, Республика Словакия) ORCID Ш: https://0rcid.0rg/0000-0002-9569-6594
Аннотация. Цель нашего исследования - определить понятия «фантастика» и «фантастические элементы» с точки зрения художественной литературы, найти их применение по отношению к конкретным произведениям Н. В. Гоголя. Основное внимание сосредоточивается на фантастических элементах, их классификации, а также на способе их употребления в художественном тексте. Материалом для анализа послужили произведения Николая Васильевича Гоголя - «Невский проспект», «Нос» и «Портрет».
© А. Громинова, З. Шпачекова, 2021
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При написании статьи мы используем типологический метод, с помощью которого изучаются общие родовые черты литературных явлений, типичных для фантастики, а затем их применение в ходе анализа, биографический метод, посредством которого объяснена связь между Н. В. Гоголем и его творчеством, наполненным фантастическими элементами, и поэтико-структурный анализ текста, заключающийся в поиске интертекстуальных и типологических связей между средствами выражения в тексте и в определении фантастических элементов в избранных повестях. В заключении статьи обобщены результаты проведенной работы и сформулированы основные выводы. На основе литературоведческих работ, посвященных теме теоретического определения понятий «фантастика» и «фантастические элементы», мы пришли к определенным выводам. В повести «Невский проспект» можно наблюдать философский и фантастический тип условности. Характер повести «Нос» можно отнести к сатирической условности, а в повести «Портрет» можно обнаружить как философскую, так и мифологическую условность. В нашей попытке анализа и интерпретации всех избранных повестей Н. В. Гоголя нашла свое обоснование тема двойничества героев, которую подчеркивал по отношению к данным произведениям литературный критик Й. Догнал. С заключениями его исследования гоголевской проблематики мы не можем не согласиться. Кроме прочего, мы приходим к выводу, что все три повести Н. В. Гоголя связаны еще одним важным звеном, содействующим выражению фантастического в них, а именно сном, который играет в творчестве этого писателя особенную роль.
Ключе вые слова: фантастика; фантастические элементы; определение; Н. В. Гоголь; типология.
Для цитирования: Громинова, А. К типологии фантастических элементов в повестях «Невский проспект», «Нос» и «Портрет» Н. В. Гоголя / А. Громинова, З. Шпачекова. - Текст : непосредственный // Филологический класс. - 2021. - Т. 26, № 1. - С. 169-177. - DOI: 10.51762/1FK-2021-26-01-14.
Благодарности: статья была создана при поддержке Агентства культурных и образовательных грантов Министерства образования, науки, исследований и спорта Словацкой Республики. Авторы выражают благодарность агентству за поддержку этого гранта KEGA 021UCM-4/2020 - Tvorba ucebnic pre rusko-slovenske sekcie bilingvalnych a slovanskych gymnazii.
In the works of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (18091852), the "father of the natural school", fantastic elements are often intertwined with real ones. Before discussing the problems of fantastic elements in his works, it is necessary to define the concepts of "fantastic elements" and "fantasy" in general and to explain by what criteria they will be classified in this article.
The concept of "fantasy" can be interpreted in many different ways, as evidenced by several approaches of literary scholars who study this concept from different points of view. The opinion that the fantasy is a special genre is supported, for example, by C. Todorov, who in his monograph Introduction to Fantastic Literature considers the concept of the fantasy as "a certain kind of literature, or, as they usually say, a literary genre" [Todorov 1999: 66]. A slightly different view of the perception of fiction as a technique that includes expressive means for creating a specific
For citation : Grominova, A., Spacekova, Z. (2021). To the Typology of Fantastic Elements in the Stories Nevsky Prospect, The Nose And The Portrait by N. V. Gogol. In Philological Class. Vol. 26. No. 1, pp. 169-177. DOI: 10.51762/1FK-2021-26-01-14.
Acknowledgments: this article was created with the support of Cultural and educational grant agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the Slovak Republic. The authors wish to acknowledge the agency for the support of this grant KEGA 021UCM-4/2020 - Tvorba ucebnic pre rusko-slo-venske sekcie bilingvalnych a slovanskych gymnazii.
text is suggested, for example, by V. A. Dmitriev, who defines the fantasy as "one of the ways of creating images, along with grotesque and satire" [Shumko 2006: 15].
However, fantasy is also interpreted on the basis of its content. For example, M. I. Shakh-novich in his monograph Primal mythology and philosophy compares fantastic fiction with the myth. In his opinion, they both explain what is happening or the essence of some phenomenon of nature, object or social life by giving them human properties. Shakhnovich also notes that this transfer of properties can be compared with religious fiction, since it is based on a belief in the existence of supernatural forces [Shakhnovich 1971: 18]. Along with M. I. Shakhnovich, M. I. Meletin-sky also defines the fantasy as a feature of mythological representation in man. In his monograph The Poetics of Myth, he states that a fantastic "higher" reality is created through myth [Meletinsky
2000: 171]. We agree with all the above opinions that the fantastic fiction can be analyzed from different points of view, since it is a special "genre" of fiction (as C. Todorov calls it), which includes several "subgenres", such as fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc. On the other hand, the content of fantastic fiction is built on the mythological ideas of a person1, expressed through various events, objects or phenomena inexplicable by the laws of our world. This is often associated with the very culture of the nation and its social stereotypes, which, according to M. Figedyova, are "integral components of mass and individual consciousness" [Figedyová 2018: 124].
From the point of view of a literary method C. Todorov emphasizes that the fantastic in a work is based on a collision of a person with supernatural phenomena, namely, on the basis of this collision, a person experiences an oscillation between reality and unreality [Todorov 1999: 25]. At the same time, C. Todorov draws attention to the fact that the content of fantastic elements in a work does not always mean that we are dealing with a fantastic way of depicting. He comes to a number of conclusions, for example, to the fact that the fantastic genre often stands between the genre of the unusual and the miraculous [ibid: 38]. In a fantastically unusual way of depicting, events that seem supernatural occur, but they gradually acquire a rational explanation. Extraordinary phenomena occur in such works, but despite this, they can still be explained. They evoke the same reaction from the reader as the works of the fantastic genre [ibid: 41]. C. Todorov defines a fantastic and wonderful way of portraying as very close to the fantastic fiction, since in such works phenomena occur without a rational reason, referring to something supernatural. He also adds that there is a pure miracle. This is a way of depicting in which events, phenomena or objects occurring do not cause surprise, and these are, for example, magic fairy tales [ibid: 47].
E. N. Kovtun in her monograph Poetics of the Extraordinary, identified six types of fiction - rational fiction, fantasy, fairytale, mythological, satirical and philosophical conventions [Kovtun 1999: 50]. We are interested in precisely the satir-
ical, mythological and philosophical types of convention, because Gogol's stories, which are subject to our analysis in this article, can be attributed to these three types.
E. N. Kovtun interprets the concept of "satirical convention" as an element of the extreme in satire, which is associated with other techniques that cause a comic situation. In this group she includes hyperbole, grotesque, sharpening, etc. However, fiction, as she claims, in satire may resemble other types of conventions, but it already has its own principles, thanks to which various paradoxical situations arise in works that destroy the illusion of reliability or the possibility of what is happening [ibid: 51-52]. At the center of the "mythological convention" is the theme of duty, a person's service to supernatural forces or high moral ideals [ibid: 51]. In "philosophical convention" fiction plays a secondary role. It should be organized and contain a special philosophical formation of reality, revealing the philosophy of "eternal" and "general", and the plots of such works occur outside of reality. Philosophical convention is built on the artistic principle of allegory, which requires deciphering real events expressed by a generalized description in the text, with the help of which an extraordinary or fantastic element is introduced into the narrative [ibid: 52-53]. As mentioned above, in this study we consider these three types of fiction in order to determine the fantastic elements in the stories Nevsky Prospect, The Nose and The Portrait written by N. V. Gogol, what is also the main goal of this paper.
The question whether the fantastic elements are connected in any way with the biography of the author himself is very relevant for this study. One can answer it briefly by listing a few facts from his life. Nikolai Vasilievich was born in 1809 in Ukraine, in the family of a small landowner. His father, Vasily Afanasyevich Gogol, was fond of literature, and he himself composed comedies and prose, filled with Ukrainian legends and folklore [Sergievsky 1956: 11]. This situation, naturally, influenced the formation and worldview of N. V. Gogol, and it was thanks to his father that he early fell in love with books, theater and got acquainted with folk life and folk art [ibid: 13].
1 By the term "mythological representations" we mean various cultural symbols. Based on the theory of K. G. Jung, cultural symbols are symbols with which representatives of various cultures tried to express "eternal truth", but gradually these symbols became collective representations [Jung 2017: 89].
In 1828, Gogol moved to St. Petersburg, where he decided to start working in public administration, and at the same time he tried to write. At the very beginning, his works received unfavorable reviews, so in 1829 the author began to travel to Western Europe. When he returned to St. Petersburg, he began to write again. His first work, favorably received by critics, was the stories of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka [Kovacicova 2007: 171-172]. In addition to "Evenings..." he also wrote a large number of outstanding works. Among them are the stories that are analyzed in this article - Nevsky Prospect, the Nose and the Portrait from the St. Petersburg cycle. The most famous works from this series, first published under the name Arabesques, were the stories Nevsky Prospect, The Portrait and The Notes of a Madman. They were later supplemented by the stories The Nose and The Overcoat, and were published under the name Petersburg Tales. All these literary texts are so relevant that even now they are undergoing scientific research.
From the point of view of the fantastic in the work of Gogol, for example, V. V. Shumko identifies three waves. The first wave is Ukrainian fantastic (as it was pointed by R. V. Jezuitova), related to the poetics of romanticism. The second is the gap between romanticism and realism, and the third wave is Petersburg fantastic, which refers to realism. In the third wave, the real and otherworldly worlds coexist, but the magical is a small part of the real, and thus fades into the background. The works of the third wave of Gogol's fantastic are, according to V. V. Shumko, often supplemented with caustic satire [Shumko 2006: 46].
R. M. Khusainova divided Gogol's fantastic fiction into three types. The first type is sheer fantasy. The fantastic takes an active part in works of this type. The action of such works usually refers to the past and the reader learns about fantastic events either from the author-narrator, or from the character acting as the narrator. For these works, in her opinion, it is characteristic that the images of fantastic forces have only an evil inclination, and in them the fantastic is mixed with reality. To this type, R. M. Khusainova attributes such Gogol's works as, for example, The Night before Christmas, Terrible Revenge, and others [Khusainova 2014: 593-594].
The second type, in her opinion, is implicit fantastic. It consists in an indirect indication of
the unreality of what is happening. The action takes place at the present time and there is a feeling that the author is trying to soften the unreal impression made on the reader. Science fiction in such works is revealed through legends, most often found in prefaces or epilogues. R. M. Khusainova emphasizes that such fiction is present in parallel with the real line, and it is transmitted through the motive of dreams or rumors. She argues that such fantastic can be seen in the works May Night or the Drowned Woman and the So-rochinskaya Fair [ibid: 594].
The third type is a special kind of fantastic -non-fantastic, typical of Gogol's later works. This type is the interweaving of reality with unreality. Thanks to the transformation, mythological archetypes converge and complement each other. Thus, the fantastic becomes something ordinary. In her opinion, Gogol's later works belong to this type. But since she was interested precisely in stories from the collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, she attributed the story Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Auntie to this type [ibid: 594]. However, in our opinion, the stories included in the Petersburg Stories can be attributed to it as well.
On the basis of all the above classifications, we consider the classification of Gogol's fantasy elaborated by R.M. Khusainova adequate, because it seems to us the most accurate. At the same time, as already mentioned, we believe that Gogol's work cannot be defined or attributed to a single direction, because in each work one can find the poetics of both realism and romanticism, although not to the same extent. This allows us to view fantastic elements regardless of direction.
After studying the definitions of the above classifications, we turn to the analysis of fantastic elements in Gogol's stories Nevsky Prospect, The Nose and The Portrait. At the very beginning, it should be noted that in the story of Nevsky Prospect, the fantastic is not expressed by the definite fantastic elements. This means that the character of the work does not encounter something supernatural, he himself does not even feel anything extraordinary or unreal. This type of fiction in Gogol's works can be attributed to non-fiction fiction, which consists in the interweaving of the real with the unreal. Thus, the essence of fiction in this work lies in the impression made on the reader, namely, in the obsession of one of the main characters with the girl he met on Nevsky
Prospect, as well as in his decision to live in a dream, since it turns out to be difficult for him to live in reality. In this work, the unbearabili-ty of the real life of one of the main characters is shown in their duality, which is at the same time contrasting. In this story, we can observe a philosophical convention, which consists in the feelings and behavior of the main characters, which require decoding.
The Nevsky Prospect story is divided into two parts. The first is the story of the artist Piskarev, and the second tells about lieutenant Pirogov. Both of these stories are intertwined at the very beginning, when both characters meet beautiful women on Nevsky Prospekt and decide to follow them, and in the conclusion, when their fate is discussed: "How strangely, how incomprehensibly does our fate play games with us! Do we ever get what we wish for? Do we ever attain that which it seems our powers have been purposely prepared for? Everything turns out quite the reverse. Fate has given one man he most splendid horses, and he rides out with them indifferently, without noticing their beauty at all - while another man, whose heart burns with a passion for horses, walks on foot and has to content himself with clicking his tongue when they lead a trotter past him" [Gogol 2020: 152].
It can be stated that the behavior of both characters is contrasting. Piskarev is an artist passionately looking for a woman he met on Nevsky Prospekt, and was disappointed in her when he found out who she really was. Despite this, he can't forget her anyway. Lieutenant Pirogov also learns that the woman he is caring for is unattainable because she is married. This means that both characters are drowned out by passion. Finally, everyone had their own way out of this situation: Piskarev had a frenzied love for an unfamiliar woman, but he could not come to terms with her way of life, so he began to meet her in his dreams as a moral, pure soul. After he confesses his love to a stranger, he gets a negative answer and kills himself. On the contrary, Pirogov is tormented by passion, more instinctive. After being beaten by the husband of a stranger for trying to kiss her, he first decides to denounce him, but gradually resigns himself and continues to live as before. Thus, it can be argued that both characters are somewhat similar to each other, but at the end of the story their fates are different. J. Dohnal calls this similarity synchronous exter-
nal duality. It, in his opinion, consists in the creation of two literary heroes who actually do the same thing [Dohnal 2010: 113].
It is also important to note that in the attempt to escape from real life into a dream in the case of Piskarev one can see a fantastic convention. The hero's reality was gradually erased with dream, "Finally dreams became his life, and from that time his whole life took a strange turn. One might say that he slept while he was awake and stayed awake while he was asleep" [Gogol 2020: 134]. The character began to live in a dream and idealized the woman he met on Nevsky Prospekt. After he "woke up" and realized that she was not what he thought of her, he killed himself. This can be taken as a fact that the appearance of sleep is justified by the unbearability of real life. The opposition of the dream to reality gives the whole story a fantastic dimension.
Among other things, in Piskarev's passionate love for an unknown woman, it is possible to find the features of a romantic character who dies because he loses his romantic ideas about love.
The Nose story is hyperbole with a comic character. Based on the classification of fiction by E. N. Kovtun, hyperbole can be attributed to satirical conventions, with the help of which situations can arise in a work that destroy the illusion of reliability. At the same time, according to A. Yu. Bychkova, the fantastic of the Nose story lies in the use of mythopoetic elements, of which the nose itself is the most expressive. The nose is associated precisely with the sense of smell, and the effect of smells for a long time was something magical, therefore, for example, shamans often used smells in their rituals. A. Yu. Bychkova suggests that a mythological worldview of N. V. Gogol affected the function of the nose and its ability to control the life processes of their owners [Bychkova 2013: 15]. We agree with this opinion, and also consider the function and meaning of the nose to be the most fantastic in this work. Thus, it can be argued that in this work the fantasy is obvious. It consists in the fact that the nose of the collegiate assessor, Major Kovalev, will separate from his face for a short time and acquire its identity. Why did the official lose his nose? I. D. Ermakov considers the loss of the nose to be a sign of castration fears, because the nose, in his opinion, is closely related to phallic symbolism. Based on the theory of Z. Freud, he observes such
symbolism in other works of Gogol [Ermakov 2008: 351-355]. We do not support this opinion and believe that the story of The Nose is a typical work of Gogol, in which, with the help of fantastic elements, it reveals the problem of the "little man" and the nose itself is an allusion to this type of character.
It should also be noted that the story The Nose was first called The Dream [ibid: 357]. The connection between these names lies not only in their mirror image, but also in the fact that there is a mythopoetic connection between them. Gogol initially narrowed everything that was happening to a dream. After the renaming of the work, the theme of dream remained only in a symbolic meaning [ibid: 358]. The fact that everything that happens is only a dream of the protagonist, we can find out at the very beginning of the work, when the protagonist wakes up, takes a mirror in his hands and learns about the loss of his nose. The assertion of the dream also occurs at the end, when this situation is repeated: the character wakes up from a bad dream, takes the mirror in his hands again and sees that his nose is already in place. Thus, the dream becomes the basis of the whole work.
As mentioned above, it is typical of Gogol's later works that he depicted the problems of ordinary, "small" people. At the same time, he paid the most attention to their well-being in society. Most often these were characters from a business environment with an inferiority complex. Thus, Gogol in The Nose story chose two main characters. The first is collegiate assessor Kovalev, who recently became major, of which he was very proud: "Kovalyov was a collegiate assessor of the Cau-causus. He had only been at that rank for two years and therefore could not forget about it for a single moment, and so as to lend himself nobility and weight, he never called himself'Collegiate Assessor', but always 'Major'" [Gogol 2020: 202]. The second is the nose (like Kovalev's alter ego), which for a short time acts as an independent hero. The nose is an organ, or part of the human face, without which it seems possible to live. This is exactly what the doctor said to Kovalev when he came to him: "Wash often with cold water, and I assure you that, without a nose, you will be just as healthy as if you had one" [ibid: 63]. Thus, the story The Nose can be perceived from two points of view: on the one hand, nose as a sign of "littleness", which, after
being separated from the rest of the face, shows its significance; on the other hand, as a collegiate assessor, Kovalev is primarily concerned with the opinion of other people about him, i. e. he cannot remain without a nose. We believe that Gogol in this work ridicules the superficial approach of "little" people, for whom it is important not what a person is inside, but outside, in order to take him seriously.
In the story The Nose, we can also find the theme of duality. According to J. Dohnal, here we come across with a synchronous internal and external duality. He sees this type of duality in the physical split of the protagonist Kovalev, when his nose begins a short life [Dohnal 2010: 116]. We agree with the opinion of the literary critic, because we also identified two main characters in the story who are intertwined with each other, with one acting as the alter ego of the other.
The third and final story that is subject to our analysis is the story The Portrait. According to A. M. Basom, "Portret occupies a unique position in Gogol's work not only in that it was published by the author in two very different versions, but also because seven years (1935-1842), those ciritical to Gogol's maturation as a writer, passed between the first and second writings of this story" [Basom 1994: 419]. This view to The Portrait is also held by R. Pevear, who states that "the fantastic and the diabolical were always essential dimensions of his world, never more so than in The Portrait" [Pevear 1999: 8].
We believe that in this work it is possible to contemplate the fantastic on two levels. Based on the typology of E. N. Kovtun, we believe that in the story The Portrait one can find both philosophical and mythological conventions. As we have already noted above, in philosophical convention, the text is subjected to decoding of symbolic descriptions. We find it in the way the main character received a large sum of money and decided to become a fashion artist. The main character, Chartkov, had a dream from which he could not wake up for a long time. The dream tells of a man painted in a portrait, how he comes to Chart-kov's bed and leaves him money. After Chartkov wakes up, he actually finds the money hidden in the frame of the portrait. He solves the dilemma, whether to spend the money only for his own needs and continue to work, and thus deepen his knowledge, or immediately spend it and become a fashion artist in order to earn even more money.
A very similar dream situation occurs at the end of the first part of the story. Chartkov cannot "wake up", but only from reality, since he dies in a rage and sees portraits everywhere, looking at him with the expressive eyes of the devil: "All the people around his bed seemed to him to be horrible portraits. This portrait doubled, multiplied fourfold before his eyes, and finally he had the vision that all the walls were hug with these horrible portraits that fixed their immobile living eyes on him" [Gogol 2020: 91]. Thus, in our opinion, the beginning and the end of the first part are intertwined. The fact that Chartkov bought up all the paintings in order to destroy them, and finally he destroyed himself, also acquires a philosophical dimension.
The mythological convention, in the center of which is the theme of man's service to supernatural forces, is revealed in the very portrait of the usurer bought by Chartkov. The character of the usurer is only mentioned in the story, since he does not directly appear in it. It is he who possesses the mystical powers of the devil, since every person who encounters him suffers an unfavorable fate. Only the artist who painted his portrait saved himself from his devilish power, for some time he moved to live in a monastery. With the help of an ascetic life and a strong faith in God, he again managed to find himself, in which one can see the mythological image of the struggle between good and evil - the devil-tempter in the person of a usurer with a strong faith in God, which helped the character not to go insane.
The story The Portrait is about a young, talented artist Chartkov, who "sells his soul to the devil" for the sake of money and fame. We believe that the devil in this story is the moneylender painted on the portrait, and all his strength lies in the vividly drawn eyes that amaze everyone looking at the portrait. Thus, here, as in the story of The Nose, it tells about a part of the face that has supernatural powers, namely about the eyes that can look at a person from the inside and tempt him. Moreover, as I. Annensky notes, the story The Nose has a cheerful character, and the Portrait is scary [Annensky 2008: 208].
J. Dohnal in connection with the story The Portrait emphasizes duality, specifically - a consistent internal, which consists in Chartkov's change after enrichment. The character Chartkov thus represents two people: first, Chartkov as a young artist who acquired the portrait, and, sec-
ondly, Chartkov after enrichment. As J. Dohnal notes, the character at the end of the first part ended up at a crossroads, because, having seen the work of an artist who came from Italy, he had to choose whether to remain a fashionable artist or return to his former life as a poor but talented artist who would have a lot work to reach the master level. J. Dohnal emphasizes that Chartkov finally chose the third path - to buy up and destroy all the outstanding paintings. Thus, he not only spent all the money, but also destroyed all the purchased paintings. J. Dohnal considers this to be Chartkov's transition to a new degree of duality - synchronously internal [Dohnal 2010: 114].
Based on the above, we come to the conclusion that all three stories, in addition to the typical Gogol's theme of the "small man", are connected by another main element that contributes to the expression of the fantastic in the work, and this is a dream. In all works, dream has magical powers. In Nevsky Prospekt, it is dream that plays a major role, because the main character experiences happiness and fulfillment of his life only when he sleeps. Thus, the magic, or the fantastic, is contained in the philosophical aspect of this work, the essence of which is the person's desire to escape from real life, in which he does not find satisfaction. The dream in this work is so opposed to reality and for some time becomes the meaning of the life of the protagonist, who dreams of a better future.
In The Nose, dream is not only a mirror image, but it plays an important role, since everything that happens is only a dream of the protagonist. But unlike Nevsky Prospect, the dream in The Nose story is a nightmare for the protagonist. The Portrait is also associated with a dream, but this connection can be realized just when the main character meets in a dream the devil embodied in usurer, who comes out of the picture frame and gives him a large amount of money, which ultimately ruins his life. Thus, it can be stated that for all the characters the dream has become something supernatural, which evoked a fantastic feeling.
In our study, we presented one point of view on the selected Gogol's short stories and fantasy, respectively fantastic elements in his work. However, it should be noted that these, as well as many other literary works by this author, are attractive and current objects of research even today, as evidenced by a number of works by lit-
erary scholars or critics who look at Gogol's work from different angles and still strive to bring innovative approaches (also in relation to the popular and frequently discussed theme of Gogol's fantasy). Some rely on the findings of specialists on N. V. Gogol, to which, for example, in the Russian context belongs the Soviet and Russian literary scholar Y. V. Mann, chief editor of the academic Complete Collection of Gogol's Works and Letters in 23 volumes and author of many works on Gogol (for example, Evolution of Gogol's fantasy, 1973; Poetics of Gogol, 1978; Nikolay Gogol. Life and art. A reading book with commentary in English, 1988; Comprehending Gogol, 2005; Gogol's work. Sense and form, 2007; N. V. Gogol. Fate and work, 2009, and many others), G. A. Gukovsky (Gogol's realism, 1959), S. G. Bocharov (The Nose'and the secret of the face, 1985), O. G. Dilaktorskaya (The fantastic in N. V. Gogol's Petersburg Tales, 1986), L. Magaza-nik (The Nose: Morphology and metaphysics of name and trope, 1996), N. A. Sindalovsky (Fantastic world of the Gogol folklore, or from Gogol's nose to Gogol's The Nose, 2009) or A. Bely (The Mastery of Gogol, 2011). Other scientists and critics follow the methods
of psychoanalysis applied to Gogol's work (for example, D. Rancour-Laferriere and his work -Out From Under Gogol's Overcoat: A Psychoanalytic Study, 1982; All the World's a Vertep: The Personification / De-personification Complex in Gogol's So-rochinskaja jarmarka, 1982; Unstitching Gogol's OVERCOAT: A Retrospective Footnote to Out From Under Gogol's Overcoat, 1984, and others), but there are also those who, from fiction and grotesque in Gogol's work, head forwards explore his satire of bureaucracy, and to acquire the knowledge that the work of N. V. Gogol can bring for administrative and bureaucratic criticism, which is even considered beneficial also for the analysis of the social sciences and the position of officials in today's world (for example, R. Peace in his study The nineteenth century: the natural school and its aftermath, 1840-1855, 1992; or E. Samier and J. Lumby in the study Alienation, Servility and Amorality: Relating Gogol's Portrayal of Bureau pathology to an Accountability Era, 2010 and others). It can therefore be stated that the literary works of N. V. Gogol are an inexhaustible and living source of scientific research.
Литература
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Сведения об авторах
Громинова Андреа - кандидат философских наук, доцент, заведующий кафедрой русистики, философский факультет, Университет им. Св. Кирилла и Ме-фодия (Трнава, Республика Словакия).
Адрес: Nam. J. Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovak Republic.
E-mail: [email protected].
Шпачекова Зина - аспирант кафедры русистики, философский факультет, Университет им. Св. Кирилла и Мефодия (Трнава, Республика Словакия).
Адрес: Nam. J. Herdu 2, 917 01 Trnava, Slovak Republic.
E-mail: [email protected]
Authors' information
Grominova Andrea - Doctor of Philosophy, Associate Professor, Head of Department of Russian Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius (Trnava, Slovak Republic).
Spacekova Zina - Postgraduate Student of Department of Russian Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius (Trnava, Slovak Republic).
