The Nose

A current project reflects the story of the great Russian author Nilkolai Gogol (1819- 1898) called ‘The Nose’. Gogol was one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism and a great destroyer of prohibitions and romantic illusions. He undermined Russian Romanticism by making vulgarity reign. His work has a ‘sense of boundless superfluity that is soon revealed as utter emptiness and a rich comedy that suddenly turns into metaphysical horror’. ‘The Nose’ is a satirical short story with strains of Absurd, Surrealism and the grotesque, written between 1835 and 1836. It tells a story of a St. Petersburg official whose nose leaves his face and develops a life of it’s own. Further, the protagonist confronts his nose in the Kazan Cathedral, but from his outfit it is obvious that the nose has acquired a higher rank in the civil service than the main character and refuses to return to his face. The main anxiety of the protagonist is focused on a danger to loose his reputation, his rank, and his popularity with women, but he does not even question the whole absurdity of the situation.The whole narration is recounted in the matter-of-fact voice of a newspaper story, including the information based on rumour and gossip.Gogol showcases the vulgarity of the society and Russian bureaucracy, where the highest values were the rank and the status, and when it is lost, there is nothing left.