Gogol’s "personality anatomy" in Abram Tertz’s narrative In the Shadow of Gogol
Authors:   Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Bogdanova Olga V. , Vlasova Elizaveta A. ,   Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
Published: May 2023

The article aims to analyze the content and narrative systems of Andrei Sinyavsky’s “philological prose” based on the material of Abram Tertz’s narrative In the Shadow of Gogol and to prove the involvement of his “literary essay” in modern Gogol studies. The authors explore the little-studied text of Sinyavsky-Tertz, trace the history of the perception of In the Shadow of Gogol by modern Gogoliade, review a number of critical provisions of modern science about the Russian comedian, and on this foundation to justify the scholarly potential of the neotraditionalist researcher. The main methods the authors used in the study are historical-literary, comparative-historical, intertextual, in their unity and complementarity. The comprehensive approach showed the new facets of Sinyavsky- Tertz’s creative talent. The analysis identified the main research strategy of the “free” investigation by Tertz – the structural and compositional integrity of the work, the setting of the research aim and objectives, the choice of the research methodology, the use of references and bibliography, the following of the logic, analytical thinking, focus of final conclusions, etc. The format of the research (for example, a “dissertation”), which Sinyavsky-Tertz resorted to, allowed the authors to trust the research hypothesis proposed in the work and related to the understanding of the personality of the “Tertzian” Gogol, an artist and thinker. In Sinyavsky-Tertz’s opinion (contrary to the traditional scholarly view), Gogol did not experience a “spiritual crisis” in the last years of his life, but by the end of the first volume of Dead Souls and the final Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends he returned to his origins and authenticity rising above his own literary works that served him as “material” support in his metaphysical quest and approaching the transcendent philosophical understanding of universal truth. Sinyavsky-Tertz subjects Gogol’s “personality anatomy” to associative and metaphorical analysis, and comprehends it in several stages: (1) on the basis of a detailed literary analysis of the texts of the comedy The Government Inspector and the novel-poem Dead Souls, and (2) in the course of a comparative analysis of the discourses of fiction and journalism (mainly epistolary ones). Combining the various components of Gogol’s creative personality leads the researcher to realize the unity and integrity of the path of Gogol-the writer and Gogol-the thinker, avoiding the “mystical crisis” (or “madness”), its gradual and cross-cutting evolution towards a deeply philosophical perception of the world and person. The authors reveal solidarity to Sinyavsky-Tertz’s position and draw a conclusion that the researcher’s judgments are substantiated and persuasive. The results obtained show that Sinyavsky’s hypothesis is valid for a number of criteria and can (should) be perceived by modern Gogol studies as a research conception that opens up new perspectives for understanding Gogol’s personality and works.