Color and Imperial Memory in Gogol's Ukraine

Eric Kim

Project Overview

I demonstrate how Nikolai Gogol employs color in the short story "Sorochinskaia iarmarka" to construct a deliberately colorful space for his Imperial Russian reader.

Methodology

To support my close reading, I provide quantitative analysis along with data visualization, both of which reveal marked clusters of colorations at the beginning, middle, and end of the story. By distributing colors throughout the work along a narratologically methodical schema, Gogol establishes a colorful memory of or legacy for this Ukrainian setting; as a result, this rhetorical effect reaches not only Gogol's contemporary readers but also future readers of this text.

Theoretical Framework

This multilateral approach to the story practices what Georgii Korotkov refers to as "disclosed reading," or the combined use of traditionally philological and otherwise quantitative methods to produce and test readings of a text. Through this act of disclosed reading, I revisit the colonial memories of and imperial relations between Ukraine and Russia.

Resources

https://scholar.kyobobook.co.kr/article/detail/4010071048315