Abstract:
The first volume of a comprehensive work devoted to the study of the literary heritage of N.V. Gogol in full. The work is being published for the first time. The book presents an exhaustive source study and interpretative analysis of all, without exception, Gogol’s works, sketches, preparatory materials, extracts, lectures, works of various genres, the names of which begin with digital designations and letters from “A” to “Ж.” The study contains a generalization of a century and a half of collecting and research work in understanding Gogol’s heritage. The publication is intended to contribute to the development of a new concept of the history of Russian literature, the task of creating which faced Russian science in the 1990s. Contrary to the biased statements of representatives of the radical movement of criticism and literary criticism about Gogol’s supposedly hidden oppositional potential, which was not realized by the writer under the conditions of his time, facts testify to the creator of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” “Mirgorod,” “Arabesque,” “ The Inspector General,” “Dead Souls” as an artist deeply rooted in the Orthodox tradition. An unbiased scientific analysis of Gogol’s works allows us to assert that the religious and political views of the classic did not contradict, but always corresponded to, officially accepted in the 19th century, ideology, the heritage of centuriesold Russian history. The work is fundamental. The encyclopedia’s vocabulary, designed for seven volumes, contains more than eight hundred and fifty articles. The first volume consists of articles devoted to almost one hundred and sixty Gogol’s works. The index to this volume contains more than two thousand seven hundred names.
Keywords: Russian literature, Nikolai Gogol, biography, creativity, author’s intention, interpretations.
