RUSS 223 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Vladimir Propp, Russian Formalism, Losing Grip
22 Feb 2018
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Nikolai vasilievich gogol cont"d; (cid:498)the overcoat(cid:499) and (cid:498)diary of a madman(cid:499) The overcoat: published in 1842, written between 1839 and 1841, widely considered his best work, approaches from which to read it, social: the little man struggling against st. petersburg society, pg. 117: famous quote, (cid:498)i am thy brother(cid:499) brutish nature: however, in order to idealize the little man, should this be the man used for a social reading, he has no real soul or personality, an automaton. His whole life revolves around his coat and a dream about his coat. There is more to it than that: gogol always plays the line between pathos and bathos. If so, why bring in the ghost at the end: is it actually a ghost, nabokov: says that if readers just take it as a social message or just take it as comedy, then this is bad. You must be a creative reader: look beyond the social reading.
