Nikolai Gogol: Ukrainian Writer in the Empire

Russian culture and Slavic Studies maintain that Gogol is an incontrovertible Russian writer. To call him a Ukrainian is to encounter deep skepticism. Oddly, the grounds of his “Russianness” are rarely made explicit and even less often examined critically. This book addresses these problems. It shows, for example, how scholars assume that language and theme make Gogol Russian. How others call him Russian by denying Ukrainians status as a separate nation, while still others avoid explanations …