Poetic and Pictorial: The Correlation of Categories in the Work of N.V. Gogol

Abstract

The article examines the problematics of representativeness as a characteristic feature of Gogol's creativity. It is noted that the picturesque style of Gogol's style is associated with various manifestations of the sublime category such as pathos, the desire to portray some colossal and stunning objects. At the same time, Gogol's verbal painting cannot be regarded as an ecphrasis. Categories of pictorial and poetic in the aesthetics of Gogol expand their own meanings, absorbing and simultaneously overcoming both hypotyposis and coloristics as characteristics of style. The picturesque of Gogol does not compete with the poetic, but radically changes its direction, appealing not to external but to inner feelings. Gogol's description of the picture of Bryullov and the interpretation of Ivanov's painting are related, because the depicted historical events acquire a universal sacred meaning in Gogol's description. The sublime modus of Gogol's creativity sets the direction for the embodiment in the word the ideas, with are unseen and invisible. In this way, both poetical and pictorial show insufficiency of their aesthetic means.‌