The concept of divine providence in N. V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba”

At the turn of the XVIII–XIX centuries, history, which was traditionally considered as part of literature, art, acquires the status of science. At this time, its branches such as philosophy of history, source studies, etc. are intensively developing, a scientific methodology for studying and describing the past is being formed. Gogol’s understanding of history approaches at least two concepts established in the historical science of the first third of the XIX century: biblical historicism and universal history. The initial idea for both is the postulate about the action of Divine providence in the earthly existence of an individual and all mankind. In Gogol’s picture of the world, the idea of Fishing was established quite early and was reflected in historical journalism, letters and works of art. The Christian concept of Divine providence is also read in the artistic system of the story “Taras Bulba”, defining its chronotopic and motivic organization, the system of characters. To determine the features of Gogol’s historiosophical concept and the author’s strategies of its artistic embodiment in the story “Taras Bulba”. The research material was Gogol’s artistic and journalistic works, as well as his epistolary. The material is analyzed in religious-philosophical and historical-literary aspects. According to the results of the study, a conclusion is made about the specifics of Gogol’s historiosophical views, including the artistic historiosophy embodied in “Taras Bulba”. In the poetics of “Taras Bulba”, the idea of Divine providence can be traced not only at the conceptual level, but also in the motivic complex and chronotopic organization. The motivic complex of “Taras Bulba” includes the following semantic links: the will of God and the free will of man, the situation of choice, the search for one’s place/destiny, the fulfillment of one’s duty as a manifestation of free obedience to God, etc. The chronotope of the story is characterized by a combination of different time plans, which allows the author to show history as an integral system, pointing out the causes of events and their consequences, as well as to present the historical process and the earthly existence of man in the vector of Divine Providence. Depicting the past of Russia, Gogol focuses on the fact that the “stone fabric” of great history is woven from the “threads of biographical” private stories, that the historical process is the result of a dialogue between the free will of man and Divine providence. “Taras Bulba” is characterized by a multifaceted and mobile optics of the image, which focuses on both epochal events of national history and personal stories of individual characters, including details of the description of their inner world.

N. V. Gogol, “Taras Bulba”, historiosophy, Divine providence, biblical historicism, universal history, the motive of freedom of choice, the motive of the search for one’s own destiny