N. V. Gogol’s motives in the Russian plays at the turn of the 20–21st centuries (Pannochka by N. Sadur / Viy by V. Sigarev)

Abstract

The attention of the playwrights and theatre to Gogol’s prosaic text opens new forms of understanding of the classical text, and allows to find in it both deeply personal author’s content and something relevant to the society of a diff erent time. In the plays Pannochka by N. Sadur and Viy by V. Sigarev, the transformation of Gogol’s motives reveals the deep meanings of the story. These are Gogol’s favorite motives of a vague fear of women, eschatological forebodings, the fear of oblivion. The clash of male and female in Nina Sadur’s version is associated with the weakness of the protagonist, endowed with a mystical worldview as Gogol himself had seen it. Desacralization of the hero’s speech reactions happened at a signifi cant moment – prayers, his dreams of higher help from above without relying on his own strengths. They mean the instability of Khoma’s character. In the play by Sigarev, Pannochka becomes a revenge heroine common to the trash thrillers. She dreams of Khoma’s just retribution for her abuse. Sigarev uses the theatrical formula of Gogol’s fi nal petrifi cation / numbness before the inevitable punishment, which unites the poetics of The Government Inspector and Viy fi nals. He puts it to the forefront in his theatrical reading. The playwrights at the turn of the 20-21st centuries transform a number of key motives of the story – a wonderful space, philosophical perception, spiritual and physical vision. Thus they demonstrate the depths of the modern protagonist’s moral weakness.

Keywords

• n.v. gogol
• n. sadur
• v. sigarev
• viy
• russian drama
• dramatization of prose