Gogol began his creative activity as a romantic. However, he turned to critical realism, opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the noble influence of Pushkin, but was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

The originality of Gogol was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the county landowner-bureaucratic Russia and the "little man", a resident of St. Petersburg corners.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who scourged the "vulgarity of a vulgar person", exposing to the utmost the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

The social orientation of Gogol is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, but events of social significance. At the same time, the plot serves only as an excuse for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of characters-types.

Deep insight into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of the word, to draw images of a huge generalizing power.

The goals of a vivid satirical depiction of heroes are served by Gogol's careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. So, for example, portraits of the heroes of "Dead Souls" were created. These details in Gogol are mostly everyday: things, clothes, housing of heroes. If in Gogol's romantic stories emphatically picturesque landscapes are given, giving the work a certain elation of tone, then in his realistic works, especially in "Dead Souls", the landscape is one of the means of depicting types, characteristics of heroes. Theme, social orientation and ideological coverage of the phenomena of life and the characters of people determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech. The two worlds depicted by the writer - the folk collective and the "existents" - determined the main features of the writer's speech: his speech is either enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in "Evenings ...", in "Taras Bulba ”, in the lyrical digressions of “Dead Souls”), then it becomes close to live colloquial (in everyday paintings and scenes of “Evenings ...” or in narratives about bureaucratic landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common language, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries.

Gogol loved and subtly felt folk colloquial speech, skillfully applied all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena of social life.

The character of a person, his social position, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol's characters.

The strength of Gogol the stylist is in his humor. In his articles on Dead Souls, Belinsky showed that Gogol's humor "consists in opposition to the ideal of life with the reality of life." He wrote: "Humor is the most powerful tool of the spirit of negation, which destroys the old and prepares the new."

Will the time come (Come desired!). When will the people not Blucher And not my lord stupid, Belinsky and Gogol From the market will suffer? N. Nekrasov The work of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol goes far beyond national and historical boundaries. His works...

Gogol is a great realist writer, whose work has become firmly established in Russian classical literature. His originality lies in the fact that he was one of the first to give the broadest image of the county landowner-bureaucratic Russia. In his poem "The Dead...

Although the concept of genre is constantly changing and becoming more complex, a genre can be understood as a historically developing type of literary work, which has certain features. According to these features, the main idea of ​​​​the work becomes clear, and we are about ...

Feeding his chest with hatred, Arming his mouth with satire, He travels the thorny path With His punishing lyre. From all sides they curse him, And, only seeing his corpse, How much he did, they will understand, And how he loved - hating! ON THE....

My God, how sad is our Russia! A. S. Pushkin. There is no doubt that Gogol's laughter originated long before Gogol: in Fonvizin's comedy, in Krylov's fables, in Pushkin's epigrams, in Griboedov's representatives of the Famus society. What was Gogol laughing at?...

Gogol's language, the principles of his style, his satirical manner had an undeniable influence on the development of the Russian literary and artistic language from the mid-30s. Thanks to the genius of Gogol, the style of colloquial and everyday speech was freed from "conditional constraints and literary clichés," Vinogradov emphasizes.

Gogol's unusual, surprisingly natural language, his humor acted in an intoxicating way, Vinogradov notes. An absolutely new language appeared in Russia, distinguished by its simplicity and accuracy, strength and closeness to nature; turns of speech invented by Gogol quickly became commonplace, Vinogradov continues. The great writer enriched the Russian language with new phraseological phrases and words that originated from the names of Gogol's heroes.

Vinogradov claims that Gogol saw his main purpose in "bringing the language of fiction closer to the lively and apt colloquial speech of the people."

One of the characteristic features of Gogol's style was Gogol's ability to skillfully mix Russian and Ukrainian speech, high style and jargon, clerical, landowner, hunting, lackey, gambling, bourgeois, the language of kitchen workers and artisans, interspersing archaisms and neologisms into speech, as characters, as well as in the author's speech.

Vinogradov notes that the genre of Gogol's earliest prose is in the style of the Karamzin school and is distinguished by a high, serious, pathetic narrative style. Gogol, realizing the value of Ukrainian folklore, really wanted to become a "genuine folk writer" and tried to involve a variety of oral folk speech in the Russian literary and artistic narrative system.

The writer connected the reliability of the reality he conveyed with the degree of mastery of the class, estate, professional style of the language and dialect of the latter. As a result, the language of Gogol's narration acquires several stylistic and linguistic planes and becomes very heterogeneous. gogol literature speech

Russian reality is transmitted through the appropriate language environment. At the same time, all existing semantic and expressive shades of the official business language are revealed, which, with an ironic description of the discrepancy between the conditional semantics of the public office language and the actual essence of phenomena, come out quite sharply.

Gogol's vernacular style is intertwined with clerical and business style. V. Vinogradov finds that Gogol sought to introduce into the literary language the vernacular of different strata of society (small and middle nobility, urban intelligentsia and bureaucracy) and, by mixing them with the literary and bookish language, find a new Russian literary language.

As a business state language in the works of Gogol, Vinogradov points to the interweaving of clerical and colloquial bureaucratic speech. In "Notes of a Madman" and in "The Nose" Gogol uses the clerical-business style and colloquial-bureaucratic speech much more than other styles of colloquial speech.

The official business language binds together the diverse dialects and styles of Gogol, who at the same time tries to expose and remove all unnecessary hypocritical and false forms of expression. Sometimes Gogol, in order to show the conventionality of a concept, resorted to an ironic description of the content that society puts into a particular word. For example: "In a word, they were what is called happy"; "There was nothing else in this secluded or, as we say, beautiful square."

Gogol believed that the literary and bookish language of the upper classes was painfully affected by borrowings from foreign, "foreign" languages, it is impossible to find foreign words that could describe Russian life with the same accuracy as Russian words; as a result of which some foreign words were used in a distorted sense, some were assigned a different meaning, while some native Russian words irretrievably disappeared from use.

Vinogradov points out that Gogol, closely linking the secular narrative language with the Europeanized Russian-French salon language, not only denied and parodied it, but also openly opposed his style of narration to the language norms that corresponded to the salon-ladies' language. In addition, Gogol also struggled with the mixed half-French, half-common Russian language of romanticism. Gogol contrasts the romantic style with a realistic style that reflects reality more fully and believably. According to Vinogradov, Gogol shows the confrontation between the style of romantic language and everyday life, which can only be described by naturalistic language. "A mixture of solemnly - bookish with colloquial, with vernacular is formed. The syntactic forms of the former romantic style are preserved, but the phraseology and the structure of symbols, comparisons sharply deviate from romantic semantics." The romantic style of narration does not completely and completely disappear from Gogol's language, it is mixed with a new semantic system.

As for the national-scientific language - the language, which, according to Gogol, is intended to be universal, national-democratic, devoid of class limitations, the writer, as Vinogradov notes, was against the abuse of philosophical language. Gogol saw the peculiarity of the Russian scientific language in its adequacy, accuracy, brevity and objectivity, in the absence of the need to embellish it. Gogol saw the significance and strength of the Russian scientific language in the uniqueness of the very nature of the Russian language, writes Vinogradov, the writer believed that there was no language like Russian. Gogol saw the sources of the Russian scientific language in Church Slavonic, peasant and folk poetry.

Gogol strove to include in his language the professional speech of not only the nobility, but also the bourgeois class. Attaching great importance to the peasant language, Gogol replenishes his vocabulary by writing down the names, terminology and phraseology of accessories and parts of a peasant costume, inventory and household utensils of a peasant hut, arable, laundry, beekeeping, forestry and gardening, weaving, fishing, folk medicine, then there is everything connected with the peasant language and its dialects. The language of crafts and technical specialties was also interesting to the writer, notes Vinogradov, as well as the language of noble life, hobbies and entertainment. Hunting, gambling, military dialects and jargon attracted Gogol's close attention.

Gogol especially closely watched the administrative language, its style and rhetoric, emphasizes Vinogradov.

In oral speech, Gogol was primarily interested in the vocabulary, phraseology and syntax of noble and peasant vernacular, the spoken language of the urban intelligentsia and bureaucratic language, Vinogradov points out.

In the opinion of V. Vinogradov, Gogol's interest in the professional language and dialects of merchants is characteristic.

Gogol sought to find ways to reform the relationship between his contemporary literary language and the professional language of the church. He introduced church symbols and phraseology into literary speech, Vinogradov notes. Gogol believed that the introduction of elements of the church language into the literary language would bring life to the ossified and deceitful business and bureaucratic language. .

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich - the famous Russian writer, a brilliant satirist, was born on March 20, 1809 in the village of Sorochintsy, on the border of Poltava and Mirgorod districts, in the family estate, the village of Vasilievka. Gogol's father, Vasily Afanasyevich, was the son of a regimental clerk and came from an old Little Russian family, the ancestor of which was considered an associate of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, hetman Ostap Gogol, and his mother, Marya Ivanovna, was the daughter of a court adviser Kosyarovsky. Gogol's father, a creative, witty man, who had seen a lot and was educated in his own way, who loved to gather neighbors in his estate, whom he entertained with stories full of inexhaustible humor, was a great lover of the theater, staged performances in the house of a wealthy neighbor and not only participated in them himself, but he even composed his own comedies from Little Russian life, and Gogol's mother, a housewife and hospitable hostess, was distinguished by special religious inclinations.

The innate properties of Gogol's talent and character and inclinations, partly learned by him from his parents, were clearly manifested in him already in his school years, when he was placed in the Nezhinsky Lyceum. He liked to go with close friends to the shady garden of the lyceum and there sketch out the first literary experiments, compose caustic epigrams for teachers and comrades, come up with witty nicknames and characteristics that clearly marked his outstanding powers of observation and characteristic humor. The teaching of sciences in the lyceum was very unenviable, and the most gifted young men had to replenish their knowledge through self-education and in one way or another satisfy their needs for spiritual creativity. They subscribed to magazines and almanacs, the works of Zhukovsky and Pushkin, staged performances in which Gogol, who played comic roles, took a very close part; published their own handwritten journal, whose editor was also chosen by Gogol.

Portrait of N. V. Gogol. Artist F. Müller, 1840

However, Gogol did not attach much importance to his first creative exercises. At the end of the course, he dreamed of leaving for public service in St. Petersburg, where, as it seemed to him, he alone could find both a wide field for activity and the opportunity to enjoy the true benefits of science and art. But Petersburg, where Gogol moved after completing his course in 1828, far from lived up to his expectations, especially at first. Instead of extensive activities "in the field of state benefit", he was offered to confine himself to modest studies in the offices, and his literary attempts were so unsuccessful that the first work he published - the poem "Hans Küchelgarten" - Gogol himself took away from bookstores and burned it after an unfavorable critical note. about her Field.

Unaccustomed living conditions in the northern capital, material shortcomings and moral disappointments - all this plunged Gogol into despondency, and more and more often his imagination and thought turned to his native Ukraine, where he lived so freely in his childhood, from where so many poetic memories were preserved. In a wide wave they poured over his soul and poured out for the first time into the direct, poetic pages of his Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, published in 1831 in two volumes. "Evenings" was very cordially welcomed by Zhukovsky and Pletnev, and then by Pushkin, and thus finally established Gogol's literary reputation and introduced him to the circle of luminaries of Russian poetry.

From that time on, Gogol's biography began a period of the most intense literary creativity. Proximity to Zhukovsky and Pushkin, before whom he revered, inspired his inspiration, gave him courage and energy. In order to become worthy of their attention, he began to look more and more at art as a serious matter, and not just as a game of mind and talent. The appearance, one after another, of such amazingly original works by Gogol as "Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" and "Notes of a Madman", and then "The Nose", "Old World Landowners", "Taras Bulba" (in the first edition), "Viy" and "The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", - made a strong impression in the literary world. It was obvious to everyone that in the person of Gogol a great original talent was born, which was destined to give high examples of truly real works and thereby finally consolidate in Russian literature that real creative direction, the first foundations of which had already been laid by the genius of Pushkin. Moreover, in Gogol's stories almost for the first time (albeit still superficially) the psychology of the masses, those thousands and millions of "little people" whom literature has hitherto touched only in passing and occasionally, is touched upon (although still superficially). These were the first steps towards the democratization of art itself. In this sense, the young literary generation represented by Belinsky enthusiastically welcomed the appearance of Gogol's first stories.

But no matter how powerful and original the writer’s talent was in these first works, imbued with either the fresh, charming air of poetic Ukraine, or the cheerful, cheerful truly folk humor, or the deep humanity and stunning tragedy of The Overcoat and The Madman’s Notes, - however, not in they expressed the main essence of Gogol's work, what made him the creator of The Inspector General and Dead Souls, two works that constituted an era in Russian literature. Ever since Gogol began to create The Inspector General, his life has been completely absorbed exclusively by literary creativity.

Portrait of N. V. Gogol. Artist A. Ivanov, 1841

As far as the external facts of his biography are simple and not varied, just as deeply, tragic and instructive is the inner spiritual process that he experienced at that time. No matter how great was the success of Gogol's first works, however, he was still not satisfied with his literary activity in that form of simple artistic contemplation and reproduction of life, in which it had hitherto been, according to the prevailing aesthetic views. He was dissatisfied with the fact that his moral personality, with this form of creativity, remained, as it were, on the sidelines, completely passive. Gogol secretly longed to be not only a simple contemplator of life's phenomena, but also their judge; he longed for a direct impact on life in the name of good, he longed for a civic mission. Having failed to fulfill this mission in the service field, first as an official and teacher, and then as a professor of history at St. Petersburg University, for which he was little prepared, Gogol turns to literature with even greater passion, but now his view of art is becoming more more severe, more demanding; from a passive contemplative artist, he tries to transform into an active, conscious creator who will not only reproduce the phenomena of life, illuminating them only with random and scattered impressions, but will lead them through the “crucible of his spirit” and “bring to the eyes of the people” as an enlightened deep, penetrating synthesis.

Under the influence of such a mood that was developing in him more and more insistently, Gogol finishes and puts on stage, in 1836, The Inspector General, an unusually bright and caustic satire, which not only revealed the ulcers of the modern administrative system, but also showed to what extent vulgarization under the influence of this system, the most sincere warehouse of a good-natured, Russian person went down. The impression made by the Inspector General was unusually strong. Despite, however, the huge success of the comedy, it caused Gogol a lot of trouble and grief, both from censorship difficulties in staging and printing it, and from the majority of society, touched by the play for the living and accusing the author of writing lampoons on his own. fatherland.

N. V. Gogol. Portrait by F. Müller, 1841

Frustrated by all this, Gogol goes abroad, so that there, in the "beautiful far away", far from the hustle and bustle and trifles, take on Dead Souls. Indeed, the relatively calm life in Rome, among the majestic monuments of art, at first had a beneficial effect on Gogol's work. A year later, the first volume of Dead Souls was ready and printed. In this highly original and unique "poem" in prose, Gogol develops a broad picture of the serf way of life, mainly from the side that it reflected on the upper, semi-cultural serf layer. In this capital work, the main properties of Gogol's talent - humor and an extraordinary ability to grasp and embody the negative aspects of life in the "pearl of creation" - reached their apogee in their development. Despite the relatively limited scope of the phenomena of Russian life he touched upon, many of the types he created can compete with the classical creations of European satire in terms of depth of psychological penetration.

The impression made by Dead Souls was even more amazing than from all other works of Gogol, but it also served as the beginning of those fatal misunderstandings between Gogol and the reading public, which led to very sad consequences. It was obvious to everyone that with this work Gogol dealt an unremovable, cruel blow to the entire serf-like structure of life; but while the younger literary generation drew the most radical conclusions on this subject, the conservative part of society was indignant with Gogol and accused him of slandering his homeland. Gogol himself seemed to be frightened by the passion and bright one-sidedness with which he tried to concentrate all human vulgarity in his work, to reveal "the whole mire of trifles entangling human life." To justify himself and express his real views on Russian life and his works, he published the book "Selected passages from correspondence with friends." The conservative ideas expressed there were extremely disliked by the Russian radical Westernizers and their leader Belinsky. Belinsky himself, shortly before this, had diametrically changed his socio-political convictions from ardent guardianship to nihilistic criticism of everything and everyone. But now he began to accuse Gogol of "betraying" his former ideals.

The Left circles fell upon Gogol with passionate attacks, which grew stronger with time. Not expecting this from recent friends, he was shocked and discouraged. Gogol began to seek spiritual support and calm in a religious mood, so that with new spiritual vigor he could begin to complete his work - the end of Dead Souls - which, in his opinion, should have finally dispelled all misunderstandings. In this second volume of theirs, Gogol, contrary to the wishes of the "Westerners", intended to show that Russia does not consist of only mental and moral monsters, he thought to portray the types of ideal beauty of the Russian soul. With the creation of these positive types, Gogol wanted to complete, as the last chord, his creation, Dead Souls, which, according to his plan, should not have been exhausted by the first, satirical, volume. But the physical strength of the writer was already seriously undermined. Too long a closed life, away from his homeland, a harsh ascetic regime that he imposed on himself, his health undermined by nervous tension - all this deprived Gogol's work of a close connection with the fullness of life impressions. Suppressed by an unequal, hopeless struggle, in a moment of deep dissatisfaction and anguish, Gogol burned the draft manuscript of the second volume of Dead Souls and soon died of a nervous fever in Moscow on February 21, 1852.

House of Talyzin (Nikitsky Boulevard, Moscow). N. V. Gogol lived and died here in recent years, and here he burned the second volume of "Dead Souls"

Gogol's influence on the work of the literary generation that immediately followed him was great and versatile, being, as it were, an inevitable addition to those great testaments that the untimely deceased Pushkin left far unfinished. Having brilliantly completed the great national cause firmly established by Pushkin, the work of developing a literary language and artistic forms, Gogol, in addition to this, introduced two deeply original streams into the very content of literature - humor and poetry of the Little Russian people - and a bright social element, which from that moment received in fiction undeniable value. He strengthened this meaning by the example of his own ideally high attitude to artistic activity.

Gogol raised the importance of artistic activity to the height of civic duty, to which it had not yet risen to such a vivid degree before him. The sad episode of the sacrifice by the author of his beloved creation in the midst of the wild civil persecution raised around him will forever remain deeply touching and instructive.

Literature on the biography and work of Gogol

Kulish,"Notes on the life of Gogol".

Shenrock,"Materials for the biography of Gogol" (M. 1897, 3 volumes).

Skabichevsky, "Works" vol. II.

Biographical sketch of Gogol ed. Pavlenkova.

What did a great writer look like? M.N. Loginov recalled that Gogol was short, thin, with a twisted nose and crooked legs. More precisely, his sister O.V. recalls the appearance of Gogol. Smut: “His hair was blond, and his eyes were brown. As a child, he had blond hair, and then darkened. He was below average height; I never saw him thin; his face was round, and he always had a good complexion, I did not see him sickly pale. He was a little stooped, it was more noticeable when he was sitting ... ”Gogol also followed his hair. Once he shaved off his hair to make it thicker. In general, many of Gogol's contemporaries believed that he was handsome.

Character

Gogol had a varied character. Some contemporaries recalled that he often resisted, others - that there was no person kinder than Gogol, still others - that there was no person more secretive than Gogol. Gogol was also very talkative and did not like female chatter.
Here is how the artist F.I. Jordan: “Gogol's kindness was unparalleled, especially to me and to my great work “Transfiguration”. He recommended me where he could. Thanks to his great acquaintance, this served as an encouragement to me and gave new strength to my desire to finish the engraving. Gogol did good to many with recommendations, thanks to which the artists received new orders.”

Creation

Gogol began writing while still in high school. Gogol's first most famous work was the poem "Hanz Küchelgarten". Gogol always carried a notebook and a pen in his pocket, so that if inspiration suddenly came, he could immediately write it down. Gogol's handwriting was illegible, and when he submitted manuscripts for printing, the publishers could not make out his handwriting. Although N.V. Berg believed that Gogol's handwriting was quite beautiful and legible. Great fame was brought to Gogol by “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, “Dead Souls” and “Inspector General”.

Gogol's first dwelling was a house in Vasilievka, where he was born. There in his room was a desk and a table where his books lay. Gogol's second dwelling was an apartment in St. Petersburg on Gorokhovaya Street. Her Gogol, together with A.S. Danilevsky was removed from the ad. They lived there together until Danilevsky entered the military service and left. Gogol also lived in Italy - in Rome on Via Felice No. 126. The apartment in Rome was very spacious. Gogol's last home was a house in Moscow on Nikitinsky Boulevard. There Gogol died.

Trips

Gogol traveled a lot. Gogol's first journey was from Vasilievka to Nizhyn, when Gogol was on his way to the gymnasium. After graduating from the gymnasium, Gogol again went to Vasilievka, and from Vasilievka to Petersburg. From St. Petersburg, Gogol sailed to Germany, to the city of Aachen, and then to Switzerland. After Switzerland, Gogol returned to Russia, to Moscow. Then he again went abroad - to Italy, to Rome, where he lived for a long time. Gogol was also in France. Then he returned to Moscow, where he died.

Gogol was not very poor, and even more so his father. Gogol's father had 400 serf souls. Gogol lived abroad for a long time, and it is very expensive to live there. Gogol also paid a lot of money to have his poem “Hanz Küchelgarten” published, which he then burned. Gogol was also not economical, and also spent a lot of money on books.

Hobbies

Gogol loved to sing. Gogol also liked to collect exclusive books. Nikolai Vasilievich loved both botany and needlework. Gogol drew very well. While living in Rome, he often went to the Colosseum, sat there and painted. Gogol loved to play dominoes and checkers, but Gogol's favorite game was billiards.

Gogol liked to wear a frock coat, as well as multi-colored vests: blue, green and many other colors. Gogol also wore bloomers. On his head was either a white or a gray hat. L.I. recalls Gogol's clothes. Arnoldi: “... He will appear in a dress of bright colors, smoothed, open his snow-white shirt, hang a golden chain around his waistcoat and look like some kind of birthday boy.<...>He thought a lot about how to dress up prettier.”

Gogol had a sweet tooth. He constantly sucked honey gingerbread, ate various sweets and drank kvass. He always had some gingerbread or candy in his pockets. Gogol also ate sugar and jars of jam. Gogol also loved various Little Russian dishes: dumplings and other dishes. Before dinner, Gogol drank a glass of vodka. Gogol himself loved to cook. Here is how L.I. Arnoldi: “Gogol began to order dinner, invented some new dish of berries, flour, cream and something else, I only remember that it was not tasty at all.”

INTRODUCTION

A fundamentally important role in the formation of a person of the XXI century, who will participate in the development of a civilized community of people, is played by literature as a special kind of art. It fills the spiritual niche, being responsible for the inner needs of the individual. It is literature that forms an individual capable of solving creative problems, striving for a search. Accordingly, the requirement for the reader, the quality of reading, increases. As you know, the reader's activity is the ability to "collect an imaginary whole of meaning without eliminating its complexity and without moving away from it" (H. L. Borges).

Creativity N.V. Gogol is the subject of numerous literary studies, considerable methodological experience has been accumulated, diverse in interpretations and ways of comprehending the material. However, schoolchildren, being in search of the "final meaning", "integrity", are still faced with one motive of mystery, penetrating all the texts of N.V. Gogol.

The aesthetic, poetic complexity of the artistic world of the writer of the 19th century creates meaningful and stylistic barriers when reading, without overcoming which it is impossible to comprehend the "paradoxes" of N.V. Gogol, full of contradictions and charm of the inner world. The stylistic imbalance, the metaphorical nature of Gogol's writing, first of all, alert students, amuse, and sometimes cause protest and a feeling of rejection.

The purpose of this course work is to study the methods of analyzing the characters of the play by N.V. Gogol "Inspector"

1. Study the educational and methodological literature on this topic.

2. Analyze the problem of the play "The Government Inspector".

3. Consider and characterize the characters of the play "The Government Inspector".

4. Draw conclusions on the topic studied and make recommendations.

5. Draw up an outline of a literature lesson in grade 8 based on the play "The Inspector General"

The study of the artistic features of the writer V.N. Gogol

Characteristics of the features of N.V. Gogol in the works of Russian scientists

The appearance of Gogol's work was historically natural. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Russian literature faced new, major tasks. The rapidly developing process of the disintegration of serfdom and absolutism evoked in the advanced strata of Russian society an ever more persistent, passionate search for a way out of the crisis, awakened the idea of ​​further ways of Russia's historical development. Gogol's work reflected the growing dissatisfaction of the people with the feudal system, their awakening revolutionary energy, their desire for a different, more perfect reality. Belinsky called Gogol "one of the great leaders" of his country "on the path of consciousness, development, progress."

Gogol's art arose on the foundation that was erected before him by Pushkin. In "Boris Godunov" and "Eugene Onegin", "The Bronze Horseman" and "The Captain's Daughter" the writer made the greatest discoveries. The amazing skill with which Pushkin reflected the fullness of contemporary reality and penetrated the secrets of the spiritual world of his heroes, the insight with which he saw in each of them a reflection of the real processes of social life, the depth of his historical thinking and the greatness of his humanistic ideals - all these Through the facets of his personality and his work, Pushkin opened a new era in the development of Russian literature and realistic art.

Gogol was convinced that in the conditions of contemporary Russia, the ideal and beauty of life can be expressed, first of all, through the denial of ugly reality. This was exactly what his work was, this was the originality of his realism [Mashinsky S.I. Artistic world of Gogol - M.: Enlightenment, p.5.].

Of all the variety of literature about Gogol created by Russian writers (immigrants of the first wave), the most significant are the books of K.N. Mochulsky "The Spiritual Path of Gogol" (1934), Professor Protopresbyter V.V. Zenkovsky “N.V. Gogol" (1961) and V.V. Nabokov "Nikolai Gogol" (1944).

They largely determined Gogol's thought not only in the West, but also in Russia. Along with these studies, there are a number of less voluminous works that also contributed to the study of the life and work of the great Russian writer. These are the works of S.L. Frank, Archpriest G.V. Florovsky, I.A. Ilyina, D.M. Chizhevsky, P.M. Bitsilli, V.N. Ilyin. Let us also name the publications of V.K. Zaitsev, V.F. Khodasevich, A.M. Remizova, G.I. Gazdanova, G.A. Meyer, Yu.P. Annenkova, A.L. Bema, R.V. Pletnev, Abbot Konstantin (Zaitsev) - articles in which there are observations useful for the science of Gogol. It should be noted that almost all those who wrote about Gogol in exile as one of the most important sources used the book by V. Veresaev “Gogol in Life” (1933), which, for all its merits, does not contain documents in the necessary completeness [Voropaev V. Gogol in criticism of Russian emigration. - p.19.].

As the basis of his research “The Spiritual Path of Gogol” (Paris: YMCA-Press, 1934; 2nd ed., 1976; reprinted in the book: Mochulsky K. Gogol. Soloviev. Dostoevsky. - M., 1995) K. V. Mochulsky put the words of the writer, expressed in a letter to his mother in 1844: "Try to see me better as a Christian and a person than a writer." Considering Gogol not only a great artist, but also a teacher of morality, a Christian ascetic, Mochulsky sets the goal of his research to evaluate the religious feat of the writer. Speaking about Gogol's childhood, the author makes a number of remarks concerning, first of all, the features of his spiritual appearance. “Gogol did not belong to those chosen ones who are born with love for God,” writes Mochulsky, “the patriarchal religiosity surrounding his childhood remained alien and even hostile to him. Faith had to come to him in a different way, not from love, but from fear ”(K. Mochulsky“ Gogol. Soloviev. Dostoevsky ”). From this position, the researcher concludes: “In the soul of Gogol, the experience of cosmic horror and the elemental fear of death are primary ...” [Voropaev V. Gogol in criticism of Russian emigration. - p.18.]

Gogol's work is socially conditioned. His views were formed in the environment of small-scale nobles, oppressed both “from above” and “from below”: “from above” - by large feudal lords, who treated their almost ruined brothers in class arrogantly, and sometimes simply mockingly (remember Pushkin, his Dubrovsky and Troekurov). From here, "from above," the formidable new industry of some kind was approaching the ill-fated small landowners. But there, "above", in the public sphere, which is difficult to access for the small landowner, high education was also concentrated, the treasures of world philosophy and world art were mastered there. Pushkin's Troyekurov labored there, but there, even higher up, were the princes Trubetskoy, the princes Volkonsky - the leaders of the Decembrists. The petty landowner peered into the life of the “tops” inquisitively, and preoccupiedly, and with apprehension, and with a natural desire to learn from these “tops” the best that they possessed, to compete with them on an equal footing. And "from below" - the peasants, whose grumbling in various forms and to varying degrees disturbed him, frightened him or pushed him to naive attempts to reconcile everyone and everything [Turbin V.N. Heroes of Gogol. - Moscow "Enlightenment", 1983. - p.22.].

But even the small landowner was indispensable to our history; and this necessity arose precisely from the intermediate nature of his position in society. Staying, so to speak, "at the bottom of the tops", he lived "at the top of the bottoms". Be that as it may, the rays of spiritual wealth that the “tops” possessed reached him. At the same time, the small landowner, unlike his brother, the city dweller, the aristocrat, communicated with the people directly, daily. The voice of the people, the precepts of popular thought were not an abstraction for him. The people in his eyes appeared in the person of those 20-30 "souls" who fed him and whom he fed in any way, who made up his fortune and for whom he was responsible to himself and to the empire. The complex agricultural cycle, the annual and daily cycle of the sun, bad weather or a bucket and the hopes and tragedies associated with them - all this the small landowner experienced in the same way as the people experienced from time immemorial. Proximity to the primordial and original in human life made his world very simple. In this simplicity, a remarkable spiritual strength was laid down [Turbin V.N. Heroes of Gogol.- M.: Enlightenment, 1983.-p.23.].

The more complexities around us, the closer Gogol is to us. The clearer is the beauty and depth of its simplicity, which becomes more relevant every day.

The original family. Happiness to those who have it big and friendly; bad for those who don't have it. But even if for some reason it doesn’t exist, some, albeit the smallest, family that arose and then disappeared, unable to save itself, gave birth to us. And around us are families: in nature, in society. And we simply cannot help but think of ourselves as part of a family.

Finally, our neighbor is original. It is primordial even now, because the neighbor accompanies us from the place of birth to the place of our last rest: we were barely born, and this and that was already placed next to us, and this was our first neighbor, then involuntarily forgotten by us. And in our conscious life? Friendship of neighbors, enmity between them, love of a neighbor for a neighbor. The neighborhood of schoolboys in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, the mournful neighborhood of prisoners in the tsarist prisons and fortresses, the wary neighborhood of landowners in different-sized landholdings, the neighborhood of peasants in the countryside - an innumerable tangle of neighborhoods. Neighborhood is also a concrete historical phenomenon, the social content here is very variable; but the very fact of neighborhood, the very necessity of it for a person has an enduring character. [Ibid., p.34.]

In everyday life, laughter lives in different qualities. When a person commits himself to the life of the spirit, "laughter dies in him." Art is a matter of the soul. Gogol is “permeated with sincerity” not only in works of art, but also when it concerns “moral-religious issues”. He has at his disposal two main means - "fantasy and laughter." Rushing towards the spiritual, Gogol tears "the framework of art, not fitting into them." There is a "duel between the 'poet' and the 'moralist'". Gogol's laughter is carefree, Gogol's fantasy is carefree. But how much it already contains and how much even this laughter and this fantasy teach. In terms of soul, Gogol's laughter already partly possesses "great religious and moral power, invariably greater than Gogol's fantasy." Explaining The Inspector General, Gogol reduces the strength of the "learning" of his laughter, giving it the functions of a "religiously colored supreme moral court." In the Church-Christian consciousness, the role of satire and laughter is negligible. “Human art, no matter how convincingly it speaks of the heavenly, no matter how attractively it depicts, remains earthly. At best, it only leads a person to the spiritual world.” Gogol “brings the vulgarity of life he observed to the limit - and reconciles the reader with it. At least - while the reader is under the spell of his artistic gift. ”[ Voropaev V. Gogol in criticism of Russian emigration. - p.19.]

There is a completely natural logic in how the assessment of Gogol's works has changed historically. At the first stage of the functioning of works, the subject of discussion, debate and even struggle (democratic and aesthetic criticism) becomes what distinguishes the text from the background of generally accepted literary norms, and at the same time the question of the right of creativity to recognition, to a certain niche in the literary space. At the next stage, the attention of readers moves to another plane: aspects of the relationship between creativity and real life are revealed (the gallery of recreated types, the positions of heroes, the meaning of conflicts). At the same time, the artistic form, features of the language, and style aroused interest. The complexity, integrity of the artistic structure of the work was clarified: genre, stylistic specificity. [ Esin A.B. Principles and methods of analysis of a literary work. - M.: Vlados, 1998.- p.112.