Madness And The Myth Of Self In Russian Short Stories By Gogol, Dostoevsky And Chekov

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the theoretical notions of madness and fragmented self in selected Russian short stories with postmodern perspective. Different metanarratives and discourses affect the characters thereby contributingto the psychologicalconfusion in
synchronizing their self-concept with those considered as normal by the society. Through a close reading of the personas of the protagonists in the selected texts, it has been found that the selected Russian short stories exhibit identity conflicts and the myth of the rational being in all the protagonists. However, their quest to understand the‘self’ also poses a situation where stable and fixed identities prove to be a myth and characters survive in an abysmal state of non-identity. Ultimately in the quest for self-actualization the protagonists struggle to achieve a balance between the notions of socially defined sane self and the culturally misfit/irrational being, and thus challenge the status quo of conventional norms of personality and behavior.