Nikolai Gogol - Dead Souls

 

Nikolai Gogol was a genius of Russian literature, perhaps best known for his unfinished masterpiece (or “poem,” as he called it) Dead Souls.

In it, he uses a technique known as ostranenie (defamiliarization) to make people and events appear strange and unfamiliar, introducing Chichikov, a man who wants to buy dead souls and trade them. This leads to absurd situations, but also occasional tragic moments.

Although the novel is dense and often moves in different directions, it contains purely poetic and philosophical passages that run through the work.

The trade in dead souls can be interpreted in several ways: as a depiction of bureaucratic hell, as a metaphysical descent into the depths of the human soul, or as an absurd social satire.

Although Gogol was respected in his time, even by the Russian emperor, some parts of the work were censored, and others were later shortened or discarded by Gogol himself. Because of this, especially in the later sections, the text feels somewhat uneven and strangely fragmented.