design element of provincial
Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin in the story “The Overcoat”
The Gogol story “The Overcoat” (see its full text, summary and analysis) depicts a petty, downtrodden and pathetic official Akaky Akakiyevich Bashmachkin (see his description in the text of the work). He is so humiliated, so intimidated, so offended by fate that, apart from the mechanical rewriting of papers, he does not know how to do anything. He says more pronouns and interjections, is afraid of mocking co-workers and trembles in front of the authorities. Continue reading
“Drone”, Novikov magazine
Of the Russian prints of the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, the most serious was Novikov’s journal “The Drone”, which was published in the capital from May 1769 to April 1770. In this organ Novikov began to flaunt the vices of modern society, exposing them to the living faces of contemporaries, probably well-known and because it is easy for everyone to recognize.
Catherine resolutely rebelled against this — her satire in “All things” was “in a smiling way” and did not allow certain individuals to be convicted — she did not invade the state, even public life, and was of a general nature, as a result of which she was distinguished by vagueness. Continue reading
“Taras Bulba” Gogol
The story of Gogol’s creation of the Taras Bulba story, the history of influences on the author of literary works by his predecessors, is very complex and has not yet been fully elucidated. First of all, interest in the past of Little Russia, and especially in the Cossacks, as the most vivid manifestation of its history, was strong in Gogol from his youth. He dreamed about creating a historical tragedy from the life of old Ukraine, then about the history of Little Russia, “in six small, or in four large volumes”. Continue reading
