The grotesque devil: Folklore and literary sources of the demonology in Gogol's 'Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka' (Russian text, Nikolai Gogol)

This dissertation aims to show that the sources of Nikolai Gogol's devils lie in folklore, myth, religion and European literature and that the chief esthetic device the author uses to depict his demons is the comic grotesque. The themes of Russian and Ukrainian folklore displayed by Gogol's devils are present also in the legends of various nations. These legends, in turn, have their origins in religion and myth. There are striking similarities between Gogol's fiends and those of his romantic contemporaries, Ludwig Tieck and E. T. A. Hoffmann in Germany, Walter Scott in Scotland and Washington Irving in the United States. What distinguishes Gogol's devils from those of the European romantics and makes them deeper and more interesting than their overseas counterparts is the Gogolian grotesque, that erases the boundaries between plants, animals and people and makes use of hyperbole and nonsensical logic.