Remaking Gogol

Joseph Frank ( Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time ) makes the intriguing argument that Dostoevsky’s use of Gogol (especially “The Overcoat”) in Poor Folk is parody, but parody that strengthens rather than undermines the central thematic thrust of Gogol’s work.  He writes:

“Gogol’s narrative technique works to create a comic distance between character and reader that defeats emotional identification; Dostoevsky counteracts the purely satirical features of the model by taking over its elements and, through his use of the sentimental epistolary form, reshaping them to accentuate Devushkin’s humanity and sensibility.  There is no term known to me that quite fits this process of formal parody placed in the service of thematic reinforcement.  Far from being the antagonistic relation of a parodist to his model, it more resembles that of a sympathetic critic endowed with the creative ability to reshape a work so as to bring its form into harmony with its content.”