"Underground Geography" and chthonic motifs in the early stories of Gogol Cover Image
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«Подземная география» и хтонические мотивы в ранних повестях Гоголя
"Underground Geography" and chthonic motifs in the early stories of Gogol

Author(s): Ágnes Dukkon
Subject(s): Customs / Folklore, Geography, Regional studies, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature, 19th Century
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: Gogol; Dikanka; geography; folklore; manuscripts;

Summary/Abstract: The young Gogol published a study on the teaching of geography for children in 1831. At the same time, he was writing the collection of short stories. Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831-1832). We can observe interesting connections between his texts - prose fictions and pedagogical writing - of this period: motives belonging to geography, history and folklore make a specifically large context. The author's interest in geology, as he writes, in the „underground geography” ("подземная география") - the earth’s crust, rocks, strata - corresponds with the "underground mythology and folklore"’ in the Dikanka stories, with the demonic figures (колдун, ведьма, черт), places (abyss, ravine, depths of the earth, swamp, churchyard) and time (night). In this study, on the basis of the Gogol’s long-time unedited manuscripts (Неизданный Гоголь, ed. by I. A. Vinogradov, Moscow, 2001) we investigate the common roots of the seemingly heterogeneous motives to discover the hidden strata and meanings of his early works.

  • Issue Year: 53/2008
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 293-304
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Russian