Involuntary Behavior of Gogol’s Heroes

A screen adaptation usually leads to certain losses for the literary original. To avoid these losses, a filmmaker and a screenwriter need to study attentively the original literary work and temporarily become philologists who realize the intrinsic incompatibility of the two aesthetics. The essay explores this problem using the example of Nikolai Gogol, the creator of in-depth psychological prose in Russian literature, a phenomenon that requires the search for new visual film techniques. Specifically, the author analyzes the involuntary movements of Gogol’s characters — movements which are not controlled by consciousness and which were explored by Gogol in a most extensive way. Actually, the depiction of such movements — in the story “The Fair at Sorochyntsi”— began his path to literary glory.

Gogol was interested in unconscious motions as inexplicable and mysterious traits of literary characters’ psychology. He hoped to solve their mystery in his books in order to solve it in life. By portraying the still unknown psychology of literary characters, Gogol was not only an innovator in the field of Russian prose; he also foresaw certain discoveries of Western analytical psychology. A filmmaker who would take into account Gogol’s discoveries could possibly reveal novel artistic meanings in his literary work.