Psychology of Nikolai Gogol

Abstract

The article first considers the heritage specifics of Nikolai Gogol as a satirist from the point of view of the writer's psychology. The close connection of psychology and satire in Nikolai Gogol’s creative work is explained by the Christian understanding of the fall of human nature. According to Nikolai Gogol, a spiritual assessment of an imperfect state of the soul inevitably leads the artist to critical pathos – a state of mind far from ideal cannot be the subject of poetic approval under any pretext, but has the right to claim only a satirical image. The guarantee of the realism of the artistic image is the impartial truth about the fallen man. The fundamental property of Nikolai Gogol's poetics is the creative combination of pastoral conviction with satirical mockery. The artist’s confession about his own shortcomings, the expulsion of vice through laughter, is a means of involving the reader in the process of transformation, the ultimate goal of which is the resurrection of “dead souls”. The paper analyses the role of the diary and confession in the formation of Nikolai Gogol's satire, the writer’s attitude to the “psychologism” of contemporary literature, his view on the problem of the positive character. The history of the aging of Nikolai Gogol’s views on the healing value of laughter, the artist’s conscious orientation in upbringing of his contemporaries towards the active nature of shame and confession is traced in detail.

Keywords

• nikolai gogol
• psychology
• christian psychology
• diary
• repentance
• shame
• confession
• conviction
• laughter
• satire