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Abstract:

This article presents an analytical review of Y. Mann’s fundamental study about Gogol, which may be called the writer’s first scholarly biography. We describe the difference between a scholarly and a literary biography and specify the type of knowledge about a person that is contained in a scholarly biography. We trace how Mann sets out the events of Gogol’s life objectively and with the maximum possible completeness and explains and interprets them on the basis of evidence. Special attention is paid to Mann’s approach to understanding the complex unity and psychological makeup of the writer’s personality. We show how Mann organically combines the study of Gogol’s “works” and “days” in strict accordance with the purpose and objectives of his research. Specific examples are cited of how the scholar carefully and judiciously examines the complex and paradoxical connections between Gogol’s different “ages of life” and describes the writer’s unique human and literary constitution, which left an imprint on both his “days” and his “works”. The article concludes with remarks about Y. Mann’s significance for the modern science of literature.