N. Gogol’s story “The Overcoat” in the receptive consciousness of the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. Article 1

The interest to Gogol’s literature heritage in the literature era of the XX–XXI centuries has been noted by many researchers. Literature scholars are actively introducing into scientific circulation the works of modern authors. They allow to raise the question of the place and role of Gogol’s heritage in the aesthetic search of the literature process of the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. The aim of the study is to analyze the functioning principles of the novel “The overcoat” and its system-forming image of a small man in the works of writers of the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. The novelty of the study lies, firstly, in the comprehension of the material that has not been previously analyzed, and secondly, in the reconstruction of the types, methods and function of the reception of the “overcoat text” in the literary era of the XX–XXI centuries. The works of modern authors were used as material: the chapter “Little Man Tetelin” from V. Makanin’s novel “The Underground or the Hero of Our Time” (1998). Makanin’s novel “The Underground, or the Hero of Our Time” (1998), stories by V. Petsukh “To Nikolai Vasilievich. Demonstration of Possibilities” from the collection “Plagiarism” (2001) and O. Slavnikova’s “CHANEL No. 5” (2009). The selected works belong to different aesthetic and genre forms and the point of convergence between them is their dialogical reinterpretation of the stylistic system of the novel “The Overcoat”, built on the combination of two modes of narration – “mimicry of grief” and “mimicry of laughter” (B. Eichenbaum). It is proved that the stylistic organization of the narrative principles of the novel “The overcoat” has a modeling effect on the works. All three selected authors use direct quotation allusion to the text of Gogol’s novel. The “overcoat plot” is projected by V. Makanin and V. Petsukh to comprehend the fate of the Soviet intelligentsia in the post-soviet realities. The writers record and comprehend the spiritual degradation aand grinding f the Soviet intellectual as a social and anthropological type. O. Slavnikova’s principles of transformation of the “overcoat plot” are connected with the reflection on the ontological value and self-sufficiency of the individual, which are lost in the situation of blurring the boundaries between the material and the ideal, man and thing. The human deformation discovered and explored by Slavnikova is thought of as an unmotivated fundamental property of the world. All three authors are characterized by the actualization of Gogol’s laughter, where the comic and the tragic coexist.

N. V. Gogol, “Overcoat”, little man, V. Makanin, V. Pietsukh, O. Slavnikov