With those caveats firmly in mind, I hope you enjoy the paper!
ELB
Evidence supporting the possibility that Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was in fact a misunderstood transsexual is widespread and varied. From his close relationship with his mother and ongoing obsession with rich fabrics, embroidery and women's clothing, to his specific attraction to heterosexual men and assumption of female household roles, there are several aspects of his biographical information which support this hypothesis. In terms of literary evidence, analysis of several characters and character types demonstrates commonalities with modern transsexuals. These range from a "castration desire" and aversion to being identified as a penis-possessor, to a simultaneous glorification and resentment of women. In combination, these examples of biographic and literary evidence may not provide definitive proof, yet they do not rule out the possibility that Gogol was, in fact, transsexual.
Sources Cited
Brierley, Harry. Transvestism: a handbook with case studies for psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1979.
Gippius, V.V. Gogol. Ed. and trans. Robert A. Maguire. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1981.
Gogol, Nikolai. "The Nose" in The Overcoat and Other Tales of Good and Evil. Trans. David Magarshack, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1957a. 203-232.
Gogol, Nikolai. "Terrible Vengeance" in The Overcoat and Other Tales of Good and Evil. Trans. David Magarshack, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1957b. 13-61.
Gogol, Nikolai. The Collected Tales and Plays of Nikolai Gogol. Ed. Leonard J. Kent, Trans. Constance Garnett (revised by Kent). New York: Pantheon Books, 1964.
Gogol, Nikolai. Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends. Trans. Jesse Zeldin, Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1969.
Gogol, Nikolai. Arabesques. Trans. Alexander Tulloch. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982.
Karlinsky, Simon. The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976.
Kiell, Norman. Varieties of Sexual Experience: psychosexuality in literature. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1976.
Money, John. Gay, Straight, and In-Between: the sexology of erotic orientation. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel. Out From Under Gogol's Overcoat. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982.
Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel. Signs of the Flesh: an essay on the evolution of hominid sexuality. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1985.
Spycher, Peter C. "N.V. Gogol's 'The Nose': A Satirical Comic Fantasy Born of an Impotence Complex". Slavic and East European Journal VII (1963): 361-374.
Stoller, Robert J. Sex and Gender: on the development of masculinity and femininity. New York: Science House, 1968.
Stoller, Robert J. Sex and Gender volume II: The Transsexual Experiment. London: The Hogarth Press, 1975.
Translations of sections of Gogol's essay "Woman" were collected
from the following sources:
Driessen, F.C. Gogol as a Short-Story Writer: a study of his technique of composition. Trans. Ian F. Finlay. Paris: Mouton & Co., 1965. 34-35
Magarshack, David. Gogol: A Life. London: Faber and Faber, 1957. 78.
Troyat, Henri. Divided Soul: The Life of Gogol. Trans. Nancy Amphoux. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1973. 41.
Sources of Illustrations
History of Russian costume from the eleventh to the twentieth century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977. 65-67.
Yarwood, Doreen. The Encyclopedia of World Costume. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1978. 103, 247, 349, 423.
Footnotes
1. A paraphilia is defined as "a condition occurring in men
and women of being compulsively responsive to and
obligatively dependent on an unusual and personally or socially
unacceptable stimulus...for optimal initiation and
maintenance of erotosexual arousal and the facilitation or
attainment of orgasm.... In legal terminology, a paraphilia is a
perversion or deviancy; and in the vernacular it is kinky or
bizarre sex" (Money, 216).
2. It is not clear from the material available in English
translation whether Iosif Vielhorsky was a confirmed heterosexual
or homosexual. In addition, if he were openly homosexual,
Iosif Vielhorsky might have been accepted by society more
easily than Gogol, due to his social position. Unfortunately,
Gogol did not belong to the highest social levels in which
homosexuality was accepted, or at least overlooked.
3. Per discussion in class, dated 10-8-96
Nikolai Gogol - Introduction to Research Paper
Terms and Scientific Background
Biographical Information
Literary Analysis of "The Nose"
Literary Analysis of "Terrible Vengeance"
Psychoanalysis of Female Characters
Conclusion, Sources Cited, and Footnotes