Title: Deformation and Restoration of the Human Image in Gogol’s Art and Thought: Ascent through Descent, a Slap in the Face, and Moral Responsibility

dignity in the individual that he [Gogol] took from him ” (23). Sergei Bocharov echoes Rozanov when he suggests that, “in the teleology of Russian literature, ” Gogol’s deformation of the human image and “Dostoevsky’s subsequent ‘restoration’ ” formed “its main path ” (142). For all the debased images in his art, Gogol nonetheless asserts in Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends that the individual is “a representative of the image of God ” (PSS 8:240). Bocharov contends that the later Gogol, by means of the abasement of the face, “now wants to heal and save the individual; the evil of the desecration of the human face should now directly serve the good and salvation ” (131). In this paper I propose to explore this paradox of salvation through desecration and the seeming incongruity between the marred visages and moral vacuity of his characters and his lofty conception of humankind. Within a framework of Orthodox thought, I will examine two Gogolian concepts that shed light on the reclaiming role of deformation. The first is “ascent through descent, ” or the idea that the depiction of a negative ideal can give rise to a countervailing positive one. The second is the controversial notion of a slap in the face (opleukha), or the idea that harsh reproofs and desecrating depictions of the human image can morally arouse his addressees. Finally, I will suggest that Gogol additionally strives to outline a positive program of restoration. In his ideas on moral responsibility, Gogol shows himself to be a ke