Phenomenon of the puppet and puppet theatre in N.V. Gogol's story ''Nevsky Prospect''

In ''Nevsky Prospect' Gogol synthesized traditions of ''a violent school'' and a spectacular folklore, especially in understanding the traditional as a trite (for example, the traditional and ceremonious behaviour of the walking people at the beginning of the story is perceived as a manifestation of lifelessness and platitude). The story also contains rudiments of romanticism: using the puppets as dead, spiritless and mechanical images. The term ''puppet'' is polysemantic. It can also be used for designation of various (sometimes interconnected) phenomena. In the context of our research, we should focus attention on the following substantial components: vivacity or deadness of the puppet. In our research, we understand the phenomenon of the puppet (including mechanical) as a mannequin and a puppet, and partial similarity of these concepts does not mean their full identity. Puppets first appear during the description of people walking along Nevsky Avenue. There is a feeling of lack of identity, alive feeling and the humanity due to the strengthening of the puppet element. First of all, it concerns the description of appearance of the characters. External tinsel replaces the internal content. These characters combine two puppet concepts: a mannequin and a mechanical puppet. In this world there is only a visibility of life, visibility of events and actions; therefore, the world is illusory, illusive, almost a mirage, and this feeling amplifies by the end of the story. The same world is in Piskarev's dream about his visiting a ball in the house of a beautiful girl. Besides mannequin and mechanical images, in the story there are images of a spectacular folklore - of the theatre of Petrushka and the raree show. In our opinion, in ''Nevsky Prospect'' Gogol used the specified types of national representations. The story begins with a raree show, in which the metamorphoses of Nevsky Avenue are shown. It approaches a raree show in the aspect of the fast change of scenery. Further, the author also narrates in the tones of a puppet theatre about the destiny of two friends: artist Piskarev and lieutenant Pirogov, who can be compared with Pulcinella and Petrushka. Piskarev can be correlated with Pulcinella appearing in the story as a tragic variant of the Italian mask. Besides, all narration about Piskarev is accompanied by the Italian and antique motives. The subject line connected with Pirogov is built on the standard scheme of representations of the theatre of Petrushka. Using the devices of the raree show and mechanical pictures in the story, Gogol puts the tradition of the puppet theatre of Petrushka-Pulcinella into the focus of attention, which emphasizes not only the puppet but also overall Italian traditions of the story.

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