Anton Chekhov’s “The Philistines” in terms of literature studies

Abstract

The goal of the study is to clarify the chronological framework of the so called Sakhalin period of Chekhov’s biography. The analysis of the creation of “The Teacher of Literature” is conducted to achieve it. The fate of the story “The Teacher of Literature” appears to be somewhat confused: the writer adds together “The Philistines” (“Novoe Vremja”, November 28, 1889) and “The Teacher of Literature” (“Russkie Vedomosti”, July 10, 1894). Chekhov used to avoid reiteration in his publications; thus, he dismissed the first title, and the story first appeared in the collection “Novellas and Stories” (the beginning of December, 1894) under the title “The Teacher of Literature”. As if following the writer’s will “The Philistines” was not included into volume 7 of the Completed Works of Chekhov (1974-1982) thus creating the gap effect. Having rejected the dramatic ending of “The Philistines”, Chekhov seemed to have restored it later when writing “The Teacher of Literature”, which originally constituted the second chapter of the modern story. Taking into consideration the ending of “The Philistines” postponed for five years, the story itself can be regarded as a fact of the writer’s biography against the background of the epistolary evidence and can reveal the writer’s mood before his trip to Sakhalin Island. Thus, the speculations over the story’s ideas can be related to the issue concerning the genre of the book “Sakhalin Island”.