Gogol's epic form of Dead Souls was (unsuccessfully) modeled on
Dante's
La Divina Commedia. It is a
depressing, astrigent view of the
country, and it becomes apparent that the
blueprint for understanding
Russia is no more than a
simulacrum, that the distant
memory of the
epic and the
familiar contact of the
present do not
share the same
field of
representation.