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Anton Chekhov Through the Eyes of Russian Thinkers

Anton Chekhov Through the Eyes of Russian Thinkers

Olga Tabachnikova

(2012)

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Abstract

The collection is comprised of twelve scholarly essays written by leading Chekhov specialists from around the world, each analysing an interpretation of Chekhov by one of three Russian thinkers of the Silver Age of Russian culture - Vasilii Rozanov, Dmitrii Merezhkovskii and Lev Shestov. It thus examines the hitherto under-researched relationship between the origins and the results of the cultural phase that came to be known as the Silver Age, and focuses specifically on the complex connections betweens Chekhov's legacy and the Russian culture of that period.


The collection is comprised of twelve scholarly essays written by leading Chekhov specialists from around the world.  Each essay analyses an interpretation of Chekhov by one of three prominent Russian thinkers of the Silver Age of Russian culture - Vasilii Rozanov, Dmitrii Merezhkovskii and Lev Shestov. This volume is particularly valuable in that its main focus is placed on the perception of Chekhov's art by those who existed on the border between literary criticism and philosophy. This is complemented by a literary critique of their accounts, and therefore remains faithful to Chekhov's poetics.

The collection thus examines the hitherto under-researched relationship between the origins and the results of the cultural phase that we now refer to as the Silver Age, and focuses specifically on the complex connections between Chekhov's legacy and the Russian culture of that period. Through its stress on the philosophical perception of Chekhov, this book offers a thematically consistent and systematic revelation of new dimensions to Chekhov's creative heritage. The essays are supplemented by biographical accounts of Rozanov, Merezhkovskii and Shestov.


Olga Tabachnikova holds a PhD in Mathematics and a PhD in Russian Literature and Philosophy. She is now a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Russian Department of the University of Bristol.


Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Half Title i
Title iii
Copyright iv
CONTENTS vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION xi
Vasilii Rozanov (1856–1919) xviii
Dmitrii Merezhkovskii (1865–1941) xxi
Lev Shestov (1866–1938) xxiii
Notes xxvii
LIST OF NAMES xxxi
LIST OF RUSSIAN CULTURAL CONCEPTS xlix
Part One VASILII ROZANOV 1
ROZANOV ON CHEKHOV: ‘OVERCOMING LITERATURE’ AND EXTENDING HORIZONS 3
I 3
II 6
III 8
Notes 10
KIND AND QUIET: VASILII ROZANOV’S READING OF CHEKHOV 13
Notes 27
CONTEMPORANEITY, COMPETITION AND COMBAT. FACTS AND FICTIONS ABOUT EVERYBODY AND PASSIVENESS, ORIENTALISM AND ANAESTHESIA IN ROZANOV’S VIEW ON CHEKHOV 37
I. Contemporaneity and Competition. General Aspects of Chekhov’s Reception by Rozanov 37
II. Playwright Chekhov Speaks in The Cherry Orchard with the Voice of the Eternal Student Petr Trofimov (1904) and Represents a Poor Motionless and Passive Russia 42
III. The Poet and Thinker Chekhov, Used as an Argument in the Cultural Combat on the Concept of Party Literature 44
IV. The Praise of Chekhov’s Art as an Adequate Expression for Russia’s Love of Itself 47
V. The Place and Function of Russian Culture in the World: Chekhov’s Oeuvre as an Example of Compensation for the Ugliness of Russian Nature and the Russian People 50
VI. Chekhov’s Letters as Autobiography: ‘Should We Create History?’ 52
Notes 55
‘TREE OF LIFE’ AND ‘DEAD WATERS’: WHY WAS ROZANOV AFRAID OF CHEKHOV? 63
Unanswered Letter 63
Chekhov: Pale Shadow of the Platonic Nihilist Gogol´ 66
Sphere of Observation: Between Brothel and Cemetery 71
Sphere of Observation: Camera Obscura 75
The Antichrist 79
Epilogue: ‘From Tinder to Tinder’ 84
Post Scriptum: Doctor Sambikin 85
Notes 86
Part Two DMITRII MEREZHKOVSKII 91
CHEKHOV AND MEREZHKOVSKII: TWO TYPES OF ARTISTIC-PHILOSOPHICAL CONSCIOUSNESS 93
I 93
II 96
III 99
IV 102
V 103
VI 104
VII 106
Notes 109
NEGATING HIS OWN NEGATION: MEREZHKOVSKII’S UNDERSTANDING OF CHEKHOV’S ROLE IN RUSSIAN CULTURE 113
Context: Merezhkovskii’s Preoccupations in 1905–1910 118
Overall Evaluation of Chekhov’s Art 124
Notes 126
AN ILLUMINATING MISINTERPRETATION? ON MEREZHKOVSKII’S LITERARY CRITICISM OF CHEKHOV 129
I. The Literary Critic Mirrored by His Subject 129
II. From Poetic to Religiously-Motivated Criticism 130
III. Indirect Illumination of Chekhov’s Poetic Philosophy in ‘Chekhov and Gor´kii’ 131
The Cognition of God and Mathematical Evidence 132
The Fragility of the Positivistic Worldview 134
Existential Uncertainty in the Face of Death 136
Notes 137
CAN MEREZHKOVSKII SEE THE SPIRIT IN THE PROSE OF FLESH? 141
I. Merezhkovskii on Chekhov 144
II. Chekhov on Merezhkovskii 151
III. The Intelligentsia’s Satiety and Blindness 157
Notes 163
Part Three LEV SHESTOV 167
LEV SHESTOV ON CHEKHOV 169
Notes 174
BETWEEN TRAGEDY AND AESTHETICS: SHESTOV’S READING OF CHEKHOV – A GAZE DIRECTED WITHIN 175
I. ‘Shestovizing’ Chekhov: Facts, Conjecture and Existential Philosophy 175
II. Shestov, Freud and Positivist Philosophy: Proximity to the Enemy 183
III. The Difference Between Ideologies and ‘Lofty Rhetoric’ 186
IV. ‘Aestheticism’ Versus ‘Creation from Nothing’: Revolt, Cruelty, and Aesthetic Myopia 189
Notes 194
SHESTOV–CHEKHOV, CHEKHOV–SHESTOV 199
I 201
II 203
(1) 206
(2) 210
(3) 214
Notes 216
PHILOSOPHY’S ENEMIES: CHEKHOV AND SHESTOV 219
Shestov’s Existential Chekhov 222
Confronting ‘Absurd Walls’ 227
Notes 240
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 247