With the works of the Russian author Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) the period of Russian imitation of Western literature ended. He found inspiration in native materials and combined realistic detail with ...
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Nikolai Vasil'evich Gogol is the father of Russia's Golden Age of prose realism. Later nineteenth-century Russian authors wrote in the shadow of Gogol's thematics and sweeping aesthetic vision; twenti...
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In the following essay, originally published in 1928, Bem evaluates the influence of Gogol's “The Nose” on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novella The Double.
I could tell you much ...
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In the following essay, Bowman surveys the critical reaction to “The Nose” and offers his own interpretation of Gogol's story.
‘… Nevertheless, if you think over ...
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In the following essay, Spycher discusses sexual symbolism in “The Nose,” asserting that the loss of the nose symbolizes a loss of sexual power.
The story “The Nose”1 ha...
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In the following essay, Yermakov offers a psychoanalytic interpretation of “The Nose,” asserting that Gogol's tale is an exploration of sexual desire and repression.
I
“...
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In the following excerpt, Lindstrom discusses the elements of comic-grotesque and social satire in “The Nose.”
“The Nose” is a gem apart. Pushkin acclaimed it as a merry...
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In the following excerpt, Karlinsky views “The Nose” as a work of surrealist fiction.
The world inhabited by the protagonists of the St. Petersburg stories is a threatening world of s...
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In the following excerpt, Rowe asserts that “The Nose” represents a reversal of the realms of waking and sleeping, reality and dream.
Viktor Vinogradov has extensively related this st...
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In the following excerpt, Fanger asserts that “The Nose” is a meta-narrative that explores the creative act of fiction writing.
[Gogol's “The Nose” begins]: ...
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In the following excerpt, Peace discusses the element of absurdity in “The Nose.”
Major Kovalev had the habit of strolling every day along the Nevsky Prospekt. The collar of his shirt...
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In the following excerpt, originally published in 1981, Woodward contends that “The Nose” describes an allegorical war between the sexes in which the masculine triumphs over the feminine...
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In the following excerpt, Brown maintains that “The Nose” should not be interpreted as a story containing a moral message, but should be understood as a tale which “exists for its...
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In the following essay, Shukman asserts that a valid interpretation of “The Nose” must take into account that which is excluded from the narrative through various omissions, digressions,...
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In the following essay, Merrill discusses elements of the comic-grotesque in both Gogol's original short story “The Nose” and the 1930 operatic adaptation, The Nose.
The differ...
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In the following essay, Bocharov considers Gogol's concern with noses as a recurring motif in his fiction, particularly in the short story “The Nose.”
Skryeshi ikh v taine lits...
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In the following essay, Seifrid situates “The Nose” within the context of Russian history.
In the final version of “Nos” that Gogol prepared for his 1842 Sochineniia, it...
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In the following essay, Oz contends that the various distortions of logic in the telling of “The Nose” represents the garbled logic of Russian bureaucracy.
“The Nose” by...
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Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai (Vasilyevich) Gogol
Critical Essay by A. L. Bem
