N Spolsky Tomcio

Prof Oleh Ilnytzkyj of the University of Alberta, editor of Canadian Slavonic Papers delivered the second in the series of Danylo H Struk Memorial Lectures, sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, at the University of Toronto on May 26. The subject of Prof Ilnytzkyjs lecture was the world famous writer known to the world as Nikolai Gogol. Deconstructing Gogol`s / Hohol`s Two Soul`s was the title of Prof Ilnytzkyj lecture.

During his lifetime Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) had repeatedly denied his being Russian. At the same time he was reluctant to call himself Ukrainian. His ambivalence was rooted in the perception of nationality at the time. The prevalent terminology recognized Velikorosy (Big Russians) and Malorosy (little Russians) reflecting the superiority of the former, but not the spiritual inferiority of the latter. Both claimed the Kyivan Rus` to be their origin, their roots and their never-failing source of spirituality.

Both were locked into a behemoth state of the Russian empire composed of many nationalities, all contributing to the imperial culture, all borrowing from it while maintaining the intellectual elites with local flavour in different urban centres of the Empire. However, no other national elite was linked so closely together as was the elite of Velikorosy with the elite of the Malorosy because of their common spitirual source.

Such was the reality of Gogol`s / Hohols time, said Prof Ilnytzkyj, the rest was perception. Gogol / Hohol had definitely belonged to the imperial urban intellectual elite, yet his heart belonged with the Malorosy. He denied being either one. His ambivalence stemmed from his perception that as a writer he created within the context of the Empire and not within the local folkloric milieu. Although he wrote about the local, he always framed it within a wider picture of the imperial culture.

Gogol / Hohol can be compared to the Irish writers of the 19th century such as James Joyce, for example, who wrote in English within the context of the British Imperial culture, yet have always been known as Irish writers.

A similar comparison can be made with Picasso who lived and created in France, yet was still recognized as a Spanish artist.

Gogol / Hohol entertained a holistic understanding of man as a writer. He believed that his spirit, rooted in the local milieu, merging with his intellect dwelling in the realm of the imperial culture, would lead to an accomplished personality analogous to perfection achieved by the unity of the human and the divine in Christ.

With his beliefs and the realities of his day with Russian as the lingua franca of the Empire, Gogol / Hohol had little choice but to remain ambivalent on the issue of nationality.

Yet, as stated by Prof Yar Slavutych in another scholarly session earlier that week, nothing fired up the Ukrainian self-perception more than did Gogol`s Taras Bulba.