Title: "Gogol’s Monsters in the 21st Century Film"

 

Abstract: Nikolai Gogol’s 19th century speculative prose appears to fit the demand of the present audience for new and more exotic - ‘Slavic’ - visual representations of the demonic in contemporary fantasy movies. His visions of monstrosity tempt Russian movie-makers to exploit The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter kind of imagery. Vij, Gogol’s masterpiece and most popular Russian mystical thriller whose new adaptation as a part of Gogol series accessible on Netflix, can be easily appreciated by the international audience. Can the creators of another adaptation, that of The Nose, hope that their animated film will be fully enjoyed worldwide? 

​

Bio: Irina Golovacheva, PhD, Habilitated Doctor of Philology, is a professor of Saint-Petersburg State University. Her major publications include three books in Russian: 1) A Guide to “Brave New World” and Around (Moscow, 2017); 2) Fantastika and the Fantastic (Saint-Petersburg, 2013); 3) Science and Literature: the Archeology of Aldous Huxley’s Knowledge (Saint-Petersburg, 2008). She published a few English chapters and articles on the fantastic, utopia, British and American fiction and biography, literature and science. The most recent is: “From Poe to James via Dostoevsky: Doppelgangers in American and Russian Short Story,” Connection and Influence in the Russian and American Short Story, ed. Jeff Birkenstein and Robert Hauthart (Lexington Books, 2021). 

​