Gogol’s reincarnations

The article examines one of the cardinal features of Gogol's legacy, which endows the writer's works with their key feature - a sense of truly “living life.” The maximum realism of Gogol's fiction is rooted in his capacity for deep figurative, syncretic thinking. Based on numerous testimonies, it is proven that the success among readers and viewers of dozens of “roles” that Gogol recreated and “played” through his stage and literary heroes lies in his exceptional gift for creative reincarnation, as well as in his extreme confessional nature, which together constitute a unique property of his genius. Gogol's legacy expands the boundaries of traditional ideas about reincarnation, which is often considered exclusively an actors' skill. In the Gogol context, this concept embraces numerous areas of creativity and even extends to a person's choice of his calling in life - the definition of the “role” with which he enters the general culture. Gogol's various self-definitions are manifested in his initial choice of his life path, when in the 1820s - early 1830s he successively “tried on” the professions of a lawyer, artist, historian, geographer, etc. The theater stage seemed to him to be one of the areas of application of his talents at that time. Creative “entries into character” were later required for Gogol's artistic and teaching activities - literary pursuits and historical studies, the latter of which also imply an “acting” transformation - thinking and acting “for” emperors, kings, caliphs, hetmans and other world history personas. The wide range of application of Gogol's diverse abilities and his deep rootedness in pan-Christian symbolism, the traditions of which he absorbed in his youth in the family and at school, logically determined the realistic, deeply conscious nature of his work.