Remake jako forma dialogu z klasyką (inspiracje Szynelem Mikołaja Gogola w wybranej literaturze rosyjskiej XX i XXI w.)
A Remake as a Form of Dialogue with the Classics (Nikolay Gogol’s The Overcoat as an Inspiration in Russian Literature at the End of the 20th Century and the Beginning of the 21st Century)

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to a very recent phenomenon in contemporary Russian literature – a remake. The subject of this research is the literary ‘dialogue’ between the classic short story of The Overcoat by Nikolay Gogol and Russian literary works at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. In scope, there is a micro-novel of Vladimir Voinovich The Fur Hat, then Dmitry Gorchev’s novel The Phone and Vladimir Shinkariev’s work The Flat, as well as Bashmachkin – a drama written by Oleg Bogaev. The interest that contemporary authors demonstrate in Gogol’s work is a result of the problems he described but which still appear to prevail. This is also an attempt to make Russian classics contemporary and reinterpret the 20th century novel simultaneously. The methods of bringing ‘Gogol’s text’ up to date in the above-mentioned works present a wide range of possibilities that a remake offers. Voinovich put social and political principles of the Soviet state in the first place. The Table of Ranks together with its submission of an individual towards the state has been deeply analyzed. In Gorchev’s and Shinkariev’s stories, contemporary Bashmachkins – ‘little men’, eager to fulfill their dreams about a better life – are presented. What is more, those texts show a very interesting picture of the Russian reality at the beginning of the 21st century ruled by lawlessness, corruption and money. The most original approach to Gogol’s work was presented by Bogaev in the continuation of the Bashmachkin’s story, where the main character is actually the overcoat who is administering justice on behalf of a dying hero.

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