Little Person

The 'little person' is a literary type denoting a socially insignificant, defenseless personality of low social standing, wronged by circumstances — a petty clerk, artisan, peasant, or pauper — whose human dignity is scorned and whose fate turns out tragically. The type became established in the realist literature of the 19th century, imbued with a democratic, humanistic compassion for the 'humiliated and insulted'; the author defends the 'little person's' right to attention, sympathy, and humanity. A classic embodiment of the type is Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin from Nikolai Gogol's tale 'The Overcoat.' In Ukrainian literature, images of 'little people' — the wronged peasantry, serfs, the poor — were depicted with deep compassion by Taras Shevchenko (the image of the seduced girl, the hired maid) and Marko Vovchok ('Folk Tales'), while the tragedy of the destitute peasant was embodied with striking force by Vasyl Stefanyk in the novellas 'The Stone Cross' and 'News.'