The Bureaucratic Chronotope: Time, Space, and Consciousness in Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin - Aidana Bolat

Columbia University
2026
Russian Literature
Bureaucracy
Chronotope
Nikolai Gogol
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
literary theory
Consciousness
Time And Space
social systems
Institutional Power
narrative theory
Philosophy
Political Theory
The Overcoat
Diary Of A Madman
The History Of A Town
19th Century Literature
Cultural Criticism
sociology
Modernity
Bureaucratic Systems
Human Experience
Russian Studies
literary analysis
critical theory
Authority
Institutional Structures
Narrative Space
Narrative Time
Social Critique

This thesis explores how bureaucracy shapes human experience in 19th-century Russian literature. Through works by Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin, the research develops the concept of the “bureaucratic chronotope,” showing how institutional systems influence perceptions of time, space, consciousness, and social possibility — themes that remain strikingly relevant today.

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