An old dream and nightmare: spatial images in the works of Nikolai Gogol

this study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of spatial images in the works of Nikolai Gogol, focusing on the binary opposition between the “old dream” of the Ukrainian village and the “nightmare” of the city (St. Petersburg and provincial towns) as key vehicles of social criticism. The goal of the work is to reveal how Gogol's poetics of space serve as a tool for diagnosing the social pathologies of 19th-century Russia: serfdom, the bureaucratic system, and the split in national identity in the era of modernization. The methodological basis is a synthesis of spatial analysis, the structural-semiotic method, and the sociocultural approach based on the writer's key texts (Dead Souls, The Overcoat, The Inspector General, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, etc.). The results of the study demonstrate that Gogol created a complex system of spatial metaphors, stratification, and climatic images, which not only had lasting literary significance, anticipating the development of the “Petersburg text” and magical realism, but also remains relevant today. The conclusions of this work can be applied in contemporary literary studies, cultural studies, and social philosophy to analyze phenomena such as digital bureaucracy, the crisis of identity in a globalizing world, and new forms of social alienation in an urban environment.

Gogol, spatial images, social criticism, theory of space, village, city, St. Petersburg text, grotesque, poetics