"The Oedipal Struggle of Dostoevsky Toward Gogol" (Piotr Axer) - My synthesis
Hello guys it's been a long time since i haven't posted so i'm back with this synthesis of an amazing work i just read !!
You guys probably don't know about it but i'm a huge fan of literature, especially English, Japanese and Russian (even if i don't know a lot about this latter one). And today i decided to do some research about Nikolai Gogol's life & works as i already ordered some of his books. While looking for one of his specific works (i was looking for a pdf english translation of 'Hans Küchelgarten') i found a dissertation by Piotr Axer about (in large) the influence Gogol's works had on Dostoyevski's works. As i'm reading 'Crime and punishment' and planning on reading some Gogol's novels (+ i'm a huge fan of fyolai) i decided to read it. To be honest it was quite long (around 220 pages) but really interesting and i did a quick synthesis of it but instead of keeping it for myself i chose to share it here so fyolai fans, literature fans and lazy people can learn stuff (the link of the original work is at the end of the post for those who wanna go deeper and read it).
Few informations about both of the authors :
Fyodor Dostoyevski : Russian author/novelist ; 11th november 1821 - 9th february 1881 ; naturalism, realism
Nikolai Gogol : Ukrainian (russian empire) author/novelist/poet/dramatist/literary critic ; 1st april 1809 - 4th march 1852 ; formalism, realism
Sythesis :
We can feel Gogol's influence on Dostoyevski's works in many ways, but the most noticable one is the references to Gogol's characters :
"His entire estate consisted of just an overcoat, like Akaki Akakievich" ('Petersburg Dreams in Verse and Prose') => Akaki being the main character of 'The Overcoat' (one if not the most famous of Gogol's novels)
"to keep asking about Garibaldi and about italian affairs, as Poprishchin did about Spanish matters … And thus there formed within him little by little the incontrovertible assurance that he was in fact Garibaldi, brigand and violator of the natural order of things" ('Petersburg Tales') => which is an actual reference to one of the titular characters of 'Diary of a Madman' (Nikolai Gogol) whom belives himself to be Garibaldi (political italian figure, 1807-1882).
In his early years of writting Dostoyevski can't evade Gogol's influence like a young man cannot escape his parents' influence and this even if their works aren't in the same style at all (Dostoyevski : more realistic, dark and mysterious / Gogol : more satiric, controversial and humour oriented).
On the other hand, Dostoyevski critized Gogol's religious opinions but he was mostly criticizing his morals and aesthetics. However, Dostoyevski explains his religious opinions and his understanding of the use of religion in literature through 'The village of Stepanchikovo'.
In conclusion we can say that Gogol's work had a huge impact on Dostoyevski works. By being an influence at the beginning of his career but also while the maturating process of Dostoyevski's works and artistic opinions as he was contesting Gogol's aesthetic, personality and religious ideas.
I hope this quick sythesis pleased you and that you learned things if you have any questions i would gladly answer them in the comments, xoxo <33
the dissertation's link :
Throughout his literary career--including its early, middle, and late periods-- Fyodor Dostoevsky actively engaged with both the literary wo
