Author: Olivera Margetić (oliveramagi@gmail.

com)
Published in conference proceedings: “Literatura in prostor”, Oddelek za
primjeralno književnost in literarno teorijo, Ljubljana, 2016

Poetics of Space: the Literary Spaces of the Uncanny and the

Marvelous in Gogol's The Nose

Synopsis: This article implements Todorov's theory of the fantastic as a genre into the concept of literary
spaces. Using Gogol's short story The Nose it presents a classification of three types of literary spaces
within the fantastic genre: the uncanny, fantastic-uncanny and marvelous.

Key words: fantastic; uncanny; marvelous; literary space; Gogol, Nikolai V.; Todorov, Tzvetan

Summary
Inspired by Todorov's classification of the fantastic to the sub-genres of "uncanny" and "marvelous", I
tried to prove on the example of Gogol's short story, The Nose, that the same classification could also be
applied to the literary spaces that appear within the fantastic as a genre. I expound Todorov's
classification as more than a vague enumeration of motifs that correspond to mentioned sub-genres and
demonstrate that each sub-genre represents a unique type of literary space. Firstly, starting out with the
role of the reader (as defined by M. Riffaterre), the paper examines the events that appear in the short
story and primarily sorts them according to the characteristics and the role that the nose has in each of
these events. In that way, the events are differentiated into those that are unlikely, but physically
conceivable (a natural-sized nose is found in a loaf of bread), the events that are hard to define as real or
unreal (the nose returns to Kovalev's face), and the events that clearly defy the laws of reality (a human-
sized nose that is dressed in a coat walks the streets of St. Petersburg). In accordance with this
classification of the events, the paper further classifies the literary spaces into those of the amputated
nose, of the absence of the nose, and those of the Nose (depicted as an autonomous person), i.e., the
literary spaces of the uncanny, fantastic-uncanny, and marvelous. However, this paper does not stop at
differentiating and identifying literary spaces; it comes to a conclusion that these spaces follow a solid
hierarchy and are governed by established laws. The spaces correspond with the events, or to be more
precise – certain literary events can occur only in compatible literary spaces, although compatible in this
case does not necessarily mean the same type. Finally, I find my analysis to be applicable to the works of
the fantastic genre on the whole - this kind of poetics of literary space could be adjoined with Todorov's
classification and become acknowledged as a part of the genre's terminological apparatus.
The uncanny and the marvelous according to characters, narrator and readers
In order to speak about the space in Gogol’s stories, we first have to decide which
perspective we are going to use. Previous interpreters of Gogol’s prose, Yuri M. Lotman being
one of them, have already pointed out that the events (and consequently, space) are observed
differently by the readers and by the characters from the story themselves. According to that, the
most common case is that something that appears to be marvelous for an average Gogol’s reader,
is at best case uncanny for a Gogol’s character. This is what happens in the short story called The
Nose. In order to present my classification of space in The Nose, we first have to classify the
events, since each type of event happens in its own type of space. Also, in order to present a
classification of the highest possible precision, I will assume the reader's perspective seeing as
the differentiation between the uncanny and marvelous can only be perceived in that way. I'll add
just a few words about the narrator – I have considered the narrator's perspective since he defines
the detachment of the nose from Kovalev’s face, and other events in which Kovalev participates
as paranormal, but since at the end of the story, the narrator joins the characters in their beliefs –
"And yet, if you stop to think for a moment, there's a grain of truth in it. Whatever you may say,
these things happen - rarely, I admit, but they do happen" (Gogol 70) - I found his perspective
not to be accurate enough.
The uncanny and the marvelous events
Now I’m going to separate the uncanny from marvelous events (although it should be
stressed out that Todorov places this short story purely under the sub-genre of marvelous since
there is no interpretative hesitation) (Todorov 75). Firstly, in the barber’s house, we encounter a
loaf of bread with a nose in it. An unlikely event at best, but not impossible. This can be
rationalized in the following way: Everyone has probably encountered a foreign object in their
food at least once, although most probably not a nose, but the possibility for such an event still
exists. Also, it should be pointed out that this event didn’t astonish the barber, he only rubbed his
eyes with disbelief. However, he was much more petrified by the fact that he recognized whose
nose it actually was that had appeared in his meal, rather than the obvious fact that it was there.
His wife, Praskovya Osipovna, on the other hand, reacted like it was more than plausible that her
husband, an alcoholic, had chopped someone’s nose off (there is no mention about how the nose
got in the loaf on the first place). So, what sense of strangeness there was during the first reading
is now completely gone, which is helped by the fact that this is the first scene, and the reader is
still unsure of how the story will develop. Having this in mind, this sort of event could, according
to Tzvetan Todorov’s terminology, be described as uncanny (look up for Tzvetan Todorov's
book "The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre") (Todorov 44). Yakovlevich’s
procedure of removing the nose also belongs in this group.
Surely the shortage of a nose from a face isn’t common. An average reader did not
encounter such an appearance in real life. However, it is not inconceivable that a person could
lose his/her nose. For example, there is a footnote in The Mountain Wreath about a tradition of
removing the enemy's nose as a sign of victory. Such a situation is of course not very likely, but
also not impossible. There is no mention in the story of how the nose disappeared from the face
of the Collegiate Assessor, and the only scenario that is taken into account is the one where the
barber Ivan Yakovlevich chops off Kovalev’s nose. The only indicator that it might be some kind
of paranormal activity is when Kovalev asks himself: “What sort of trick is this?” (Gogol 48) (in
the Serbian translation he calls it the work of the Devil). On the other hand, we should keep in
mind that it is a common type of idiom in many languages, and that Kovalev is constantly trying
to find a logical explanation for the event, which further means that he does not strongly believe
it is a paranormal occurrence. To conclude – there is no mention that it is in fact an impossible,
i.e. marvelous event, but we are given some plausible explanations even outside of the fictional
universe. The only inexplicable thing is the fact that the place where the nose once was is now as
flat as a “freshly cooked pancake” (Gogol 56). However, when this event is observed from the
reader's perspective, it can be considered as Gogol’s way of establishing a grotesque image,
because in comparison to the other events in the story, it induces laughter rather than fear.
Finally, this type of event could be described as uncanny, but considering the nuances we have
noticed, we should use the more specific and sophisticated terminology of Todorov and mark it
as fantastic uncanny (Todorov 44).
Among the uncanny events of The Nose, we can also include Kovalev’s attempts to
notify the authorities and post a newspaper ad seeking his lost nose. It should be noticed that the
narrator puts greater emphasis on this part of the story, as Kovalev's actions raise more questions
for him than the actual disappearance of the nose and pays a great deal of attention to Kovalev’s
visit to the newsroom. The return and the disappearance of the nose are also uncanny events, or
to be more precise - fantastic uncanny, because the return of the nose to the face is not described
at all, especially not as an act of the nose itself. We can rather say that this was not the case,
since the nose was returned to Kovalev in its regular size, not as an autonomous person. In order
to be better understood, I will once more point out that the disappearance, the return and the
appearance of the nose in a loaf of bread were not described at all, we are only given what
happens after that.
All other appearances of the nose in the story, such as when it strolls down the Nevsky
Avenue in a coat, visits somebody’s house, takes a ride on a stagecoach or travels to Riga, are
without a doubt marvelous since there is no way we can justify them outside of the fictional
universe (Todorov 52). There is no logical explanation for a nose to gain human attributes. Of
course, this only applies to the reader's perspective. For the characters of the story, those events
are uncanny, or a curiosity, but not marvelous, as the people of St. Petersburg consider them a
rare spectacle which provides them opportunity for deception, personal gain or money-grabbing.
For example: “One well-known very respectable lady wrote to the head park-keeper, asking him
to show her children this very rare phenomenon and, if possible, give them an instructive and
edifying commentary at the same time” (Gogol 66).
Types of spaces
The spaces of the short story the Nose can be classified into three categories. The first
category would be the one in which the nose appears in its natural size. The second one pertains
to the spaces that make it plausible for the nose to be missing from Kovalev’s face, while the
third category refers to the spaces where the nose appears as The Nose, i.e. a person of certain
social status, possessing its own will, in a coat and with a hat. According to this and the previous
classification of the uncanny and marvelous events, the first category of spaces can be dubbed as
the spaces of the uncanny. The second are the spaces of the fantastic uncanny, and third, the
spaces of marvelous. For the sake of precision, I should point out that those spaces are not
strictly separated, as overlapping is still possible. This phenomenon was described by Gaston
Bachelard in his work The Poetics of Space. According to him, the diversity between the
concrete and the spacious (referring to the interior and exterior spaces) is not clearly defined, and
the dialectics of the inside and the outside is multiplied and diversified by various nuances
(Bachelard 216).
In the story, Kovalev’s room is a good example where the overlapping of two spaces is
possible, as the first and second types of spaces overlap, but the best example of Bachelard’s
dialectics is the Kazan cathedral (which I’ll talk about later, since it belongs with the spaces of
marvelous). However, it is important to say that the events which occur in the space of uncanny
can later reoccur in the space of the fantastic uncanny. Namely, it is possible for an event to
occur in a space of lower rank and then later again in a space of a higher rank. This also applies
to the relation between the spaces of the fantastic uncanny and the spaces of marvelous.
However, this process never allows for a reversed order, or for a leap of an entire rank -
something that happens in the spaces of the first rank, will not happen in the spaces of third rank,
so the only movement that this mechanism allows is an upward progress by a single rank. This is
not just a mere observation, but an indicator that these spaces follow a solid hierarchy and that
certain principles affect both the plot and the way that the events are going to be presented. This
is supported by the fact that the plot is non-linear and by Gogol’s method of omission of certain
events from certain types of spaces (some events are simply shrouded in mystery or the
characters sleep through them). Now, let's have a closer look at these respective spaces.
The spaces of uncanny
The barber’s home belongs with the first type of spaces – it's where the nose appears in a
loaf of bread. Here I’d like to remind you of what Lotman said in the article titled "Artistic Space
in Gogol's prose" – that the everyday space (in this case uncanny, as the most realistic and
everyday-like) is filled with material stuff, and that food plays a specific role (Lotman,
"Umetnički prostor u Gogoljevoj prozi" 277). Now, back to the spaces of uncanny – there is also
the road between the Voznesensky Avenue (where the barber unsuccessfully tries to get rid of
the nose) and the St. Isaac’s bridge – from which Ivan Jakovlevich drops the nose wrapped in a
rag. Then – Kovalev’s room, where a police official brings the nose back to its owner. So, we
can see that the spaces of uncanny aren't always indoor spaces, but are specifically delimited
(however, not necessarily by walls, as we can conclude based on the Voznesensky Avenue – St
Isaac’s bridge route). This is the case only with the spaces of uncanny. When it comes to the
other two types, we are familiar only with the Kazan cathedral, Nevsky Avenue and Sadovaya
street, with other locations visited by Kovalev and The Nose not being specified.
The spaces of fantastic uncanny
As I’ve already said, the spaces of fantastic uncanny are those where Kovalev appears
without a nose. The first example is his room (a location that proves the overlapping that I spoke
of, since it is also included in the spaces of uncanny). Nevsky Avenue, chief’s house, the Kazan
cathedral, the newsroom and the coffee shop also belong here. If you read the story carefully
enough, you will notice that the coffee shop has a special status, since Kovalev comes to this
same place twice - to look himself in the mirror when he loses his nose, and then again when he
regains it (and that is the point in the story when any deviation from the laws of reality is gone).
However, this does not refute the claim that the events strictly move through spaces in an upward
hierarchy, since this event cannot be characterized as being marvelous, uncanny or fantastic
uncanny, because it is simply realistic. Kovalev's first visit to the coffee shop should also be
given special attention: “Fortunately the shop was empty, except for some waiters sweeping up
and tidying the chairs. A few of them, rather bleary-eyed, were carrying trays laden with hot
pies. Yesterday’s newspapers, covered in coffee stains, lay scattered on the tables and chairs”
(Gogol 47). Here we see the vivid materialism with specific emphasis to food that Lotman
mentions – coffee, hot pies, but also, newspapers. Also, the bleary eyes of the waiters could be
viewed as a hint of the mental state of the citizens of St. Petersburg (their perception is
distorted). However, I find the verbs “sweeping” and “tidying” as the most important aspects of
this brief description since they refer to a return to the primary state of the story - order. Also,
these are both continuous verbs, which gives this coffee shop a special role in this story, because
it is the same place where we will meet Kovalev with his nose back on. So, the coffee shop is the
location which hints us that the process of returning to the primary order has already begun, and
afterwards, the place where the restoration of order is once again confirmed. In other words, it is
a location, or a space, of anticipation and of affirmation of the reestablished order. The
interesting thing is that all the spaces where Kovalev finds himself for a greater deal of time are
indoor spaces with certain standards of conduct and predominantly bureaucratic, with the
Nevsky Avenue simply being a passageway for getting from one place to another. Thus, despite
the fact that there is something weird going on with Kovalev, he cannot talk to an official of a
higher rank, even though it is his own nose, he cannot advertise the disappearance of his nose, or
even talk to the chief of police after lunch. Simply, it is a space of solid norms that cannot be
subjected to any marvelous events.
Also, it is a space where other characters of the story don’t show any amazement, it’s
more like they are intrigued. For example, when he takes a look at Kovalev’s face, a clerk in the
newsroom will say “how very peculiar”, but will find the fact that the empty space where the
nose had been is now as flat as a pancake much more interesting than the obvious fact that a man
is missing his nose.
It is also noticeable that the objects typical for the fantastic as a genre, like glasses and
mirrors, appear only in the spaces of fantastic uncanny. So, the location of this intermediate
space is where the change of perspective is necessary for the characters of the story to notice the
strangeness of the events. This is important because the dialectics between the spaces of fantastic
uncanny and the spaces of marvelous develops through the sergeant’s glasses and his story of
how he caught the Nose. It is actually the only way that an event from a higher rank of spaces
can reoccur in a space of a lower rank – not in the literal manner, but exclusively when
paraphrased, through the story inside a story, and only in such a way that the characters
themselves are fictitiously transferred into the spaces of a higher rank, as in this case, the space
of marvelous.
"Very strange. We caught it just as it was about to drive off in the Riga
stagecoach. Its passport was made out in the name of some civil servant. Strangely
enough, I mistook it for a gentleman at first. Fortunately, I had my spectacles with
me so I could see it was really a nose. I'm very short-sighted, and if you happen to
stand just in front of me, I can only make out your face, but not your nose, or beard,
or anything else in fact. My mother-in-law (that's to say on my wife's side) suffers
from the same complaint." (60-61)
In this passage there are two key points for understanding Gogol’s story. If we pay
attention, we can claim that the only characters who saw the Nose, and knew that it is not a
human being were Kovalev and the police official. In other cases, it was only heard that the Nose
appeared here and there. So, the police official and Kovalev, them and only them, were the only
ones that have certainly used the mirror and glasses. The other key point is given with the fact
that the official admitted that he believed, before he had his glasses on, that the Nose was indeed
human, with an additional remark being that he and his mother-in-law are shortsighted. This is
actually an addition to the first key point and it shows that in the spaces of marvelous, we meet
people who are physically unable to see the Nose. And, I’d like to remind you that even Kovalev
managed to see his nose only after he looked himself in the mirror. No person can actually see
his/her real nose without looking at its reflection.
The spaces of marvelous
The first thing I want to say about the last type of space in this story is that it is the least
clearly defined. Its borders are almost unimaginably wide. I say almost because a single border is
suggested, but this border can also be understood in a literal manner. The border is Riga, the
Nose’s getaway destination. But first, I’ll list the concrete places that belong to the spaces of
marvelous. It is the Nevsky Avenue, the Kazan cathedral, a house that the Nose briefly visits and
a stagecoach on the way to Riga. As we can see, besides the cathedral and partially the Nevsky
Avenue, this space is quite unspecified, and it gets even wider when the official who finds the
Nose tell us his story, since we are not given the exact route of the Nose’s trip, and there are
quite a lot of roads to Riga.
So, let’s start with the Nevsky Avenue, since it is the point of contact of the spaces of the
fantastic uncanny and the spaces of marvelous. Also, it is the space where the rumors of the
Nose's whereabouts during the trip are spread. If this is coupled with the fact that we are told of
the Nose's trip to Riga in an indirect manner, we can conclude that the space of marvelous is not
expanded only physically, but also verbally, and, if I can put it that way – narratologically.
There is also a different aspect of verbal expansion and it is associated with the Kazan
cathedral which presents a central problem for the spaces in this story. It is the only place where
the Nose and Kovalev get into a conversation. It is the only place where a, so to say non-being
i.e. a being that doesn’t belong to the world of reality talks with someone who is in the first place
a being of reality. Here we have the literal expression of the dialectic of the two types of spaces.
And that is possible only in a cathedral, since it is a space of transcendence. However, it still
adheres to certain behavioral norms. We can see that from the dialogue between Kovalev and the
Nose, or more specifically, from the fact that a clerk of a lower rank should not be speaking to
one of a higher rank. This also points to the incompatibility of the real and the unreal, even in
such a “powerful” place as a cathedral. And notice that just after this, the Nose “managed to slip
off unseen”.
On the account of Riga, I’d just like to add that, as well as being the only clearly defined
border for the spaces of marvelous, it was also an actual border at the time, since it was a
province annexed to Russia. This, indeed, was not “Russian land”. So, if we consider that the
Nose was caught when he tried to cross that border, we get an additional aspect of the story that
allows us to paraphrase Gogol’s sentence from the end of the Nose: “Whatever you may say,
these things do happen in Russia – rarely, I admit, but they do happen.”
Finally, I’d like to say that this article is a part of a work-in-progress theory (although
there have already been some researches on this topic, such as Petra Eckhard's Chronotopes of
the Uncanny: Time and Space in Postmodern New York), or a sketch, so to say. But I do believe
that this classification of spaces of the fantastic as a genre should be taken into account and could
be (probably with some additions and improvements) applied to other literary works of this
genre.

Bibliography
1. Bachelard, Gaston. The poetics of space. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994.
2. Gogol, Nikolai. Diary of a Madman and Other Stories. London: Penguin books, 1987.
3. Lotman, Jurij, »Umetnički prostor u Gogoljevoj prozi«. Treći program, I-IV. Ed. Dobrilo
Aranitović. Beograd: Radio Beograd, 1993.
4. Todorov, Tzvetan, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre, Itaka: Cornell
University Press, 2001.