Gogol tradition in the context of the Old Testament story of the Exodus in the novel Return to Egypt by V. Sharov

Return to Egypt by V. Sharov was published in 2013. The novel is a story about the Gogol family, descendants of the great Russian writer, represented in correspondence between the writer's great-great grandson and the members of the family. The subtitle of the novel "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends of Nikolai Gogol" introduces the principal mood of the classic in the novel -introduction of the national revival idea with the help of the writer's word. Due to the fact that there is a story about the writer's family with a special mission in the center of novel, the problem of generic consciousness penetrated by the ideas of logo-centrism and literature-centrism is introduced in the novel. On the one hand, the main family heir, Gogol the Second, repeats the life scheme of the writer forefather in the novel, trying to finish his poem Dead Souls and change the course of national history. On the other hand, he lives his life with Gogol's heroes in the context of an alternative version of Russian religiosity, where the Old Believers play the main part. There is a strong associative connection between the history of the Old Believers and an Old Testament story of the exodus of Jews from Egypt. In this associative system Old Believers are presented as a new Peculiar People of God forced to wander with the aim of attaining their promised land. The scope in the situation of a comeback occurs with the help of these "coincidences". The situation of comeback to Egypt used for the title of the novel is a symbol of despair and inevitable comeback to the starting point of the path in the novel and it describes the transformation of the mythological consciousness in the context of the events of the 20th century. In the novel a modern version of the mythological consciousness based on the myths of modern times is presented. The myths of modern times are based on the concept of personal responsibility for our sins and understanding that it is impossible to correct humanity. Gogol's descendant chooses a very special way to harmonize the world. He seeks to change the past, to create a perfect example of it, to gain the support of the existence in the present. He finishes the poem making Chichikov similar to Moses who saves the nation from spiritual slavery, and uses him as an example to follow. In the traditional version of the generic mythological consciousness a comeback to the experience of ancestors was the key to the right path and a positive final result. In the novel by Sharov the comeback to the experience of the ancestors is associated with another passage to an unattainable ideal: following family law means an a priori agreement with inaccessibility of the desired higher sample.

Keywords

Authors

References