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Corruption, futility and madness: relating Gogol’s portrayal of bureaupathology to an accountability era

Corruption, futility and madness: relating Gogol’s portrayal of bureaupathology to an accountability era
Corruption, futility and madness: relating Gogol’s portrayal of bureaupathology to an accountability era
This paper explores the insights literature can bring to administrative and bureaucratic critique, focusing on the work of Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's satire of bureaucracy presages many subsequent social science analyses, presenting a severe indictment of bureaucracy as a rigid and impersonal state machine producing meaninglessness, absurdity, and tragedy. These encompass the institutional level and fundamental ruptures in society caused by a surfeit of bureaucracy in "The Nose." On a more psychological level, "The Overcoat" explores the effects of bureaucratisation on the individual, portraying the alienation, futile activity and servility caused in lower level functionaries through problems of loss of identity, the absence of meaningful work, and a lack of separation between public and private life. This paper uses Gogol's work to intensify and sharpen an exploration of the pathological responses of educational administrators and policy makers to an accountability era of burgeoning bureaucracy.
educational administration, leadership, bureaucracy, aesthetic critique, gogol
Samier, Eugenie
f1d5fe15-7a87-4a99-986b-5b866b4017df
Lumby, Jacky
Samier, Eugenie
f1d5fe15-7a87-4a99-986b-5b866b4017df
Lumby, Jacky

Samier, Eugenie and Lumby, Jacky (2008) Corruption, futility and madness: relating Gogol’s portrayal of bureaupathology to an accountability era. Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Council for Education Administration, Durban, South Africa. 08 - 11 Sep 2008. 14 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

This paper explores the insights literature can bring to administrative and bureaucratic critique, focusing on the work of Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's satire of bureaucracy presages many subsequent social science analyses, presenting a severe indictment of bureaucracy as a rigid and impersonal state machine producing meaninglessness, absurdity, and tragedy. These encompass the institutional level and fundamental ruptures in society caused by a surfeit of bureaucracy in "The Nose." On a more psychological level, "The Overcoat" explores the effects of bureaucratisation on the individual, portraying the alienation, futile activity and servility caused in lower level functionaries through problems of loss of identity, the absence of meaningful work, and a lack of separation between public and private life. This paper uses Gogol's work to intensify and sharpen an exploration of the pathological responses of educational administrators and policy makers to an accountability era of burgeoning bureaucracy.

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More information

Published date: September 2008
Venue - Dates: Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Council for Education Administration, Durban, South Africa, 2008-09-08 - 2008-09-11
Keywords: educational administration, leadership, bureaucracy, aesthetic critique, gogol

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 63283
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/63283
PURE UUID: ca7b9f74-b902-42ef-9da2-aafa2413db3d

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Date deposited: 26 Sep 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 11:37

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Contributors

Author: Eugenie Samier
Author: Jacky Lumby

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