The plot o f „Dead Souls” by M.W. Gogol as a baroque metaphore Cover Image

Сюжет Мертвых душ H.B. Гоголя как барочная метафора
The plot o f „Dead Souls” by M.W. Gogol as a baroque metaphore

Author(s): Aleksander Ivanickij
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego w Olsztynie
Keywords: baroque symbolism of the story; the lost personality trait; the man’s transformation in the soulless flesh; Dante’s Divine Comedy; Gogol’s Dead Souls;

Summary/Abstract: A number of the Gogol’s works, he wrote in 1840-s (The Final of "Auditor”, Selectedfragments from the correspondence with friends) show a clear connection with the Polish andUkrainian Baroque tradition of the metaphorical convergence of social and spiritual world. Itallows us to suppose the same symbolism in the first part of his poem Dead Souls (1842). Deadserfs that are sold by the landowners to Chichikov as nominally living, can be understood as personality trait of this people that they had lost little by little. It clarifies the sense of the vices that must be showed in the first part of the poem. This is mental stinginess and mental waste, that show themselves by turns in four first figures of the landowners (Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev andSobakevich) and flows together in the last figure of Plushkin.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: XVIII
  • Page Range: 47-55
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Russian