Of course, in the background of this whole project is the long shadow cast by a history Russification in Ukraine and issues of language and identity.

In the future, as I expand to other works and personal writings, this will become more apparent. For example, as much as Gogol is known for his Petersburg tales (“The Nose” being one of them), his letters and notes are often written in Ukrainian, some of his characters speak Ukrainian, and many of his stories are about Ukraine. In fact, part of the reason why I chose Gogol for this project is because he uses the Russian AND Ukrainian languages in both his literary works and personal life.

He was born in the village of Velyki Sorochyntsi, Ukraine and therefore, he also belongs to Ukrainian literature ( and I would be remiss if I didn’t point that out). I acknowledge that Nikolai Gogol is part of the Russian literary canon, but this is where things get interesting. “The Nose” was originally written in Russian, and this digital edition will utilize Russian texts. Portrait of Gogol, 1841, by Otto Friedrich Theodor von Möller. So if you haven’t read it, please read it here. The various interpretations of Gogol’s story are tangential to this project (Is is about repressed homosexuality? a criticism of Russian social hierarchy? absurdity for absurdity’s sake?), I chose this story purely out of love, because it’s one of my favorite short stories. What is worse for Kovalyov is that his nose has apparently become a higher ranking bureaucrat than he himself! Kovalyov does eventually get his nose back and any lessons he may have learned from the strange occurrence are quickly forgotten. Although he attempts to hide his new deformity, he soon becomes the center of Petersburg gossip when he runs into his nose galavanting around St. A man so concerned with appearances and status, Kovalyov is mortified. Meanwhile, Kovalyov, a contemptible bureaucrat, wakes up to discover his nose has gone missing. Yakovlevich dumps the nose into the river so as not to be found with it. He recognizes it as the nose of Collegiate Assessor Kovalyov, one of his regular customers. Published in 1836, in a journal owned by Aleksandr Pushkin no less, this satirical story begins when a barber named Ivan Yakovlevich finds a nose in his wife’s freshly baked bread. The first time I read it, I could not believe what I was reading – it was absolutely absurd.

Gogols the nose