SPATIO-TEMPORAL STRUCTURE OF THE SHORT-STORY BY N.V. GOGOL «THE LOST LETTER»

Abstract

This scholarly article reviews subjectological and plot-building spatiotemporal framework of the tale by Nikolai Gogol «The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...Church» – that is mystical space («the evil place» or «the hell») and chronicle-household and sociohistorical literary time continuum (the epoch of Catherine the Great’s kingship). In the «real space» of this fiction the writer singles out the two main toposes – Baturin and Konotop. The author of this research highlights the fact that the set-up of this short-story begins within the frame of the road chronotope, which, in its turn, is closely linked to the fair chronotope. Within the sphere of the latter the red colour attains symbolic meaning. Beyond that, the tavern/inn chronotope is considered as «the temptation locus», in which there takes place the conclusion of the agreement between the character-human and the devilry. As for the dream motive, it is analyzed as the otherness, the verge that divides the humane and the daemonic, the real and the irreal worlds. This paper also describes, in what way the Evil One in Gogol’s tale «plays» with space and time, deforms and distorts them, in such a way pulling the wool over the main character’s eyes.