Chekhov's Works Research Articles

Anton Chekhov in school and university teaching in the 2000s−2010s: discussion in the "Chekhov Herald"

The subject of the study is the features and main content of the discussion on the problems of teaching Chekhov's creativity in post-Soviet secondary and higher educational institutions presented on the pages of the information and bibliographic publication "Chekhov Herald" in the 2000s and 2010s. The problem of the need to create new educational and methodological manuals adequate to the post-Soviet socio-cultural situation, as well as the problem of spreading scientific knowledge about the life and work of A.P. Chekhov attracted the attention of leading modern Chekhov scholars, prompted them to create new educational materials, organize special conferences and, in general, to discuss this problem. The discussion allows us to judge both the latest problems and challenges of both academic Chekhov studies (and literary studies in general) and the school practice of teaching Chekhov's work and literature in general. The analysis of the materials presented on the pages of the information and bibliographic edition of the Chekhov Bulletin allows us to see the peculiarities of the dynamics of this discussion and modern Chekhov studies in general. The main conclusion of this analysis is that with the change in the socio-cultural situation from the turn of the 1990s‒2000s to the end of the 2010s, the challenges that the community of Chekhov scholars tried to answer, also changed. At the beginning of the 2000s, the appearance of new textbooks at the same time was accompanied by the problem of their inaccessibility, especially in the provinces; the widespread use of the Internet by the end of the 2000s – early 2010s partially solved this problem, but created a new one: the inaccessibility of high-quality information as the main problem was replaced by a decrease in the level of culture of reading and critical thinking among schoolchildren/students and, often, teachers, a decrease in the general cultural level leads to a widening gap between academic literary studies and school practice and an intensification of the intergenerational cultural gap, attempts by Czech scholars to influence the school study of Chekhov and Russian literature in general face the problem of unpopularity, lack of demand for scientific humanitarian knowledge in society.

The genre diversity of A.P. Chekhov's work and his vision of reality

The author examines the genre diversity of A.P. Chekhov's literary work. It is noted that Chekhov's works have an acute social orientation, pronounced psychologism, and a subtle artistic description of the literary characters. It is said that an interested reader can observe a deep insight into everyday reality, while experiencing a sense of inevitability of fundamental changes in society. Attention is paid to the speech features of Chekhov's characters, which allow us to accurately characterize their natural essence in a sufficiently capacious form. At the same time, the importance of using the innovative subtext in the works of Anton Chekhov, the linguistic means of character behavior, is fixed, taking into account the fact that the text and the subtext are separated and often contradict each other. It is stated that the bright artistic talent of A.P. Chekhov demonstrated the power of typicality, which allowed the images of his many literary creations to become household names. In addition, the features of Anton Chekhov's dramaturgy, his depiction of real life on the stage, and a detailed description of everyday life are outlined. It is said about the reception of Chekhov's dramatic works by modern domestic and foreign masters of culture. It is concluded that the demand for individual author's receptions of Chekhov's intertext in modern drama certainly confirms the relevance of his works to date. It is emphasized that this is due to the socio-philosophical nature of theatrical productions that touch on moral issues of human existence, since Chekhov's desire for the truth of life and the truth of everyday life creates prerequisites for increased interest in them at all times. A common thread is the idea that the prose and drama of the creator formed the conditions for the further development of realistic traditions in world literature.

Reception of A.P. Chekhov's play “The Cherry Orchard” in China

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a well-known Russian writer and playwright in China. During his life, he created many works that are familiar to the Chinese readers. It is generally recognized that Chekhov's plays open a new page in the history of drama and theater. The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov's last work, is considered one of his most mature dramatic works and today has a debatable character in literary criticism, its interpretations are offered to the audience on the theater stage all over the world, including in China. This article aims to trace the evolution of the reception of the named work in Chinese critical thought, as well as to reflect the history of the productions of The Cherry Orchard in the theater of China. The subject of this work is the reception of the play "The Cherry Orchard" in Chinese literary criticism, the study of the history of its translation and staging in various historical periods in China. The main research methods used are descriptive and historical. The author of the study tries to characterize the main features of the perception of the work and productions of The Cherry Orchard in China, which are determined by the change in the socio-historical conditions of the state. Critical and literary works of Chinese researchers of A.P. Chekhov's work are used as material for analysis. In this regard, the present study seems to be relevant, since the author develops a scientific discussion around the Chekhov work under consideration. The theoretical novelty of the article lies in the fact that the works of Chinese literary critics are introduced into scientific circulation, devoted to the problems of reception of the images of the play, its plot and ideological originality, and analyzes the performances of "The Cherry Orchard" by Chinese directors.

Unrealized speech of A.P. Chekhov's characters in the aspect of family communication

The article presents an analysis of fragments of unrealized speech of A.P. Chekhov's heroes in the texts of novels and short stories written in 1888-1904: "Women", "Wife", "Neighbors", "Fear", "Black Monk", "The Story of an unknown person". Typical ways of introducing unrealized speech into the author's context are revealed. In the course of the study, it was found that unrealized speech conveys the innermost thoughts and emotional state of the main characters, being an important factor for understanding the essence of many events that occur in the adult life of A.P. Chekhov's characters. Unrealized speech is a significant component of the text that contributes to the correct interpretation of a particular situation that is associated with the family communication of Chekhov's characters. Unrealized speech, internal in nature, has an extra-verbal reason why it cannot be expressed verbally. In most cases, such a reason is the emotional state of the character, represented in the Chekhov text by a description of facial expressions or gestures, an out-of-speech situation that does not allow you to express the programmable so as not to offend the other. Analyzing fragments of stories from this period of Chekhov's work, representing family communication, one can come to the conclusion that unrealized speech actualizes the internal speech situation in the texts under study. Typical ways of transmitting unrealized speech are improper-direct, direct or indirect speech, thematic speech in the author's narrative is less common in this function. A typical input for unrealized speech is a modal verb with the meaning of desire or expression of will + an infinitive with the meaning of speech activity in a construction with a contrastive conjunction: I wanted to say, but ...; I wanted to say, but ...; I wanted to answer, but... etc.

Фокализация темы беды в творчестве А.П. Чехова второй половины 1880-х гг.: рассказы «Горе» (1885), «Чужая беда» (1886), «Беда» (1886) и «Беда» (1887)

Chekhov wrote four different stories that share the theme of woe and misfortune. Words denoting the theme are present in the titles of these stories, and the plots are built around it. The first story, “Woe”, was written in 1885. The second and third stories, “Other People's Misfortune” and “In Trouble”, were written in 1886. The fourth story, “In Trouble”, was written in 1887. A comparative analysis of these four stories is done for the first time. The relevance of the study lies in the novelty of the study of “trouble” in Chekhov's works. The phenomenon of trouble is widespread in the writer's works, and it has several peculiarities. This article analyses “Chekhovian misfortune” and aims to determine its unique features. The key research method is comparative analysis, which helps indicate the differences and similarities of Chekhov's misfortunes in the four stories, it helps us to better understand Chekhov's philosophy as a writer and as a psychologist. The course of the study is first studying the four stories, then conducting their analysis, and comparing them based on the results of the analysis. This study explores the creation of these stories and compares them to each other. Despite the differences in the plots of these works, common themes and motifs still can be traced. The phenomenon of disaster for Chekhov is a fundamental plot. Chekhov pays great attention to creating a unique, Chekhovian misfortune in the story “In Trouble” in 1887. This story was written after “In Trouble” in 1886, the “trouble” motif of which did not leave the writer satisfied. Chekhov unravels his thoughts of human misfortunes in distinctive context. One of the main features of Chekhovian misfortune is that the writer swiftly gets straight to the point, lets the reader see the character's misfortune and immerse into it. However, the real Chekhovian misfortune is how people treat the ones facing it. It is evident in “Other People's Misfortune”, through which the writer is trying to share his ideas about the fundamental human issues, his outlook on ethics and empathy. These problems are scrutinized in all four of the novels that are being analysed in this work. Combined together they, represent the Chekhovian problem of human relations, which in his writings often leads characters to feeling complete indifference to everything in life. The four different works are united by the moral social problem described in them. The problem consists in the lack of desire for understanding others. Grief or misfortune are not really true misfortunes for Chekhov, especially if they end happily, like in “In Trouble” (1886), but, despite the good ending, the story still has its title. Randomness or inattention to the main or secondary things in life, indifference or aimlessness of the plot gives Chekhov a position of neutrality. Chekhov does not want to evaluate and define trouble (misfortune, woe), since he alone will not be able to persuade the whole humanity of what real trouble is. So, he tried to be as as neutral as possible in relation to his characters, entrusting the reader with the task of evaluating.

Remakes by B. Akunin

The article considers the remake as a phenomenon of modern literature to reveal the work of B. Akunin. It is shown that the only text of Akunin, perceived by readers-researchers as a remake, is the play Seagull, which is a sequel to the Chekhov's work with the same name. Such perception was both a character of correlation with A. Chekhov's text (the last act of Chekhov's comedy is the first appearance of Akunin's play), and a provocative presentation (the play was released together with A. Chekhov's Seagull). The poetics of Seagull is noticeably oriented towards its perception as a sequel to Chekhov's text by the widest readership. However, in Akunin's practice, one can use works whose remake nature is far from being so obvious. First of all, we are talking about Decorator (a collection of Special Assignments), which can be read as a remake of Clean Monday by I. Bunin. As research shows, in The Decorator, the plot of Clean Monday is flattened and pointed. The motive of gaining the possession of beauty, which is one of the central ones in Bunin's story and determines the poetics of many levels of works, in Akunin's behavior performs an exclusively plot-forming function and determines the development of the detective line. The Bunin code also plays an important role in the first behavior of the Special Assignments collection - Spades Valet. As analysis shows, the poetics of the collection Special Assignments in an extremely simplified form mirrors the bipolar poetics of Bunin's artistic world. Likely an appeal to the Bunin code is demostrating the inferiority of a polar view of the world, from the one side, and a test of the possibilities of the poetics of the detective, on the other side.

CHEKHOV’S PRINCIPLES OF ARTISTIC ORGANIZATION IN THE CREATIVE WORK OF G. MUSREPOV

This article explores the principles of artistic organization of A. Chekhov's text and their influence on the creative work of the famous Kazakh writer G. Musrepov. The authors of the article identify the main features of the principles of the artistic organization of the text of A. Chekhov’s creative works. Additionally, the main features of the principles of the artistic organization of the text, inherent in the works of G. Musrepov are considered. The article provides a semantic and comparative analysis of the works of the two writers, on the basis of which the authors identify the main “parallels” in the works of writers. The authors, referring to the notion of artistic organization of the text, examine such categories as the main features of the writers' artistic world, plot composition of their works, the use of lexical and semantic, graphic and expressive means, as well as the specificity of spatial and temporal organization of artistic texts. The mentioned categories make up the internal form of the artistic whole of the work. The research methodology is based on the comparative and comparative-typological, as well as semantic methods of research. The authors of the article touch upon the problem of reception of A. Chekhov's work in Kazakhstan. To date little research has been devoted to this topic, so this problem requires comprehensive study and analysis. Reception of creative work from the point of view of bearers of another culture, in comparison with the national literature of Kazakhstan, will highlight and explore new facets of the Russian writer's work. The uniqueness of this study lies in a systematic analysis of the principles of artistic organization of the texts of A. Chekhov and G. Musrepov. The results obtained will be used in the framework of the PhD thesis “Reception of A. Chekhov's Creativity in Kazakhstan”.

Chekhov 's dramaturgy in the modern Chinese theater in the XX and XXI centuries .

The article is devoted to the problem of reception of Chekhov's dramaturgy in the modern Chinese theater. The subject of the study is the stage reception of Chekhov's plays in China in the XX and XXI centuries. The purpose of this work is a systematic analysis of the features of Chekhov's dramaturgy in the Chinese theater in different periods. The main methods are descriptive, analytical and comparative methods. Chekhov's plays were introduced to China more than a hundred years ago, and most of his dramatic works were staged in a modern Chinese theater. In various performances based on Chekhov's plays, Chinese playwrights-directors such as Yang Shen, Lai Shengchuan, Li Liuyi, Lin Zhaohua, etc., show us their unique interpretation of Chekhov's drama in many areas. Many studies consider the problem of the influence of Chekhov's dramaturgy on the work of Chinese writers, and the problem of stage interpretation of Chekhov's plays in China has been little studied. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that it provides for the first time a relatively holistic analysis of the stage reception of Chekhov's dramatic works in China in the XX and XXI centuries. Modern Chinese theatrical figures carefully treat the text of the originals of Chekhov's plays, while offering new interpretations of his dramaturgy. Russian Russian stage interpretation and Chekhov's reception in China have already become one interpretive code for the study of Russian drama in modern Chinese theater and modern Russian-Chinese literary relations.

Rethinking Chekhov's work in modern Chinese productions

This article is devoted to the consideration of a number of stage projects by Chinese directors, in which the work of the writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is reinterpreted. Analysis of such productions and projects as the international drama festival "Chekhov Forever" in 2004, a hybrid work based on Chekhov's story "Three Sisters" and Beckett's novel "Waiting for Godot" by Lin Zhaohua in 1998 and 2018, a double performance by Stan Lai based on the works "I take You by the Hand" by Carol Rocamora and "The Seagull" Chekhov 2014 , etc . It allows us to trace innovative approaches to reading Chekhov's works in the context of the life of modern Chinese society. These works cause a great resonance not only in the professional environment, but also among the mass audience, who invariably penetrates the depth of Chekhov's images, the subtlest shades of emotional experiences; the Chinese audience finds themselves close to the problems, hopes and aspirations of the heroes, brilliantly transferred to the actual socio-cultural environment of China, always topical and recognizable. The scientific novelty of the article is connected with the fact that the nature of mastering the creativity of the Russian playwright in the theater of the East is a fairly new and at the same time promising topic for research. The conclusions and results of the study can become the basis for further studies of the specifics of the adaptation of foreign dramaturgy in the national theatrical tradition on the example of other countries and regions.

The history of the Chinese translation of Chekhov's drama in the XX and XXI centuries.

Recently, there has been an increase in the interest of scientists in studying foreign translations of Chekhov's dramatic works. There are quite a lot of comparative studies of various Chinese translations of Chekhov's plays in a certain period, but the problem of systematic periodization of Chinese translations of Chekhov's plays has been little studied. The article is devoted to understanding the history of the Chinese translation of Chekhov's plays in the XX and XXI centuries. The subject of the study is various Chinese translations of Chekhov's dramatic works. The purpose of this work is a systematic analysis of the features and causes of the development of the Chinese translation of Chekhov's drama in different periods. Descriptive, analytical and comparative methods are used in the course of the study. For the first time, the work provides a relatively holistic overview of the history of reception and translation of Chekhov's drama in China since the XXI century. In a comparative study of Chinese translations of Chekhov's dramatic works, it is necessary to pay attention to the perception of foreign culture by different translators. We divide the complex history of reception and translation of Chekhov's drama in Chinese culture of the XX - XXI centuries into five stages. With the change of time and the development of theory and the level of translation, the artistic charm of Chekhov's drama is revealed even more. Chekhov's transformation from a typical realist writer into a recognized pioneer of modern drama of the XX century also confirms the complexity, ambiguity and advancement of Chekhov's work. We also need to look at the translations of Chekhov's dramaturgy from an intercultural point of view, timely consider the latest achievements of research in the field of translation of Chekhov's dramaturgy at home and abroad and look for ways of mutual comparison between different cultures in comparing translations.

Two Pushkin Poems

Two Pushkin Poems Zooey Park (bio) Arion We were many on the vessel;The sail stretched by some,Others pulled as oneDeep on powerful oars. In a lullOur able helmsman engagingThe rudder, steered the heavy ship silentlyAnd I—full of trust and carefree,Sang to the sailors… suddenly the womb of the seaWas crushed by a whirlwind raging…And died the pilot and every sailor!—Only I, the mysterious singer,Thrown ashore by nature's rift,Sing the ancient hymns,And my wet things,I dry in the sun under a cliff. (1827) Cyclops Tongue and mind were dazedWhen upon thee I gazed:With a single eye I was endowed.Though if the fates had allowedMe a hundred eyes to see,All my hundred would be set upon thee. (1830) [End Page 85] Zooey Park Zooey Park is a Korean-American filmmaker living in Ecuador. He is a Boston University graduate of The University Professors' Program. His translations of two Chekhov short stories appear in the online publication Berfrois, and he is currently working on theme-based collections of Chekhov's works. Copyright © 2022 Trustees of Boston University

Творчество А. П. Чехова и современные читательские ориентации: к вопросу о деканонизационных культурных тенденциях

The works of Anton Chekhov have been established in the Russian cultural canon and perceived as its integral part. At the same time, if we look at the history of the beginning of Chekhov’s texts in canonical corpus (starting with the October Revolution) we get a contradictory picture. In 1920–1930s writer's works, although marked by the presence of anti-Chekhov tendencies in literary criticism, were popular among mass readership. Surveys among library workers and soldiers of the Red Army attest to that fact. Since 1960, when anti-Chekhovism was over, we can see the opposite trend: a gradual decline of A. P. Chekhov's works popularity among readership. Chekhov's status of the classical writer remained unswerving until the 1990–2000s, however, the gap between “reverence” and “reading” was widened, resulting in periodical absence of his name in surveys on favorite and prominent Russian writers at the beginning of the 20th century. This referred to the street interviews among random respondents. That's why in January-April 2018 the author conducted a survey among the targeted audience — visitors of the A. P. Chekhov House-Museum in Moscow. Respondents were asked to name their favorite Chekhov works, quotes, and tell if they had Chekhov's books in their home libraries. Moreover, the author asked respondents when they were rereading the texts of the writer. Results of the survey showed an uneven acquaintance with Chekhov’s works with the prevalence of negative trends among museum's visitors: respondents read the writer’s works irregularly even if they have Chekhov`s books at home. They were not able to remember when and which texts of Chekhov they were rereading. All respondents had the greatest difficulties answering the question about favorite quotes of Chekhov's works. These facts combined with research from the early 2000s, sustain a conclusion about the nominal nature of presence of A. P. Chekhov in the list of “canonized” authors, and his actual “decanonization” that occurred at the turn of the 21st century.

Early plays by Anton Chekhov: a dialogue with Ivan Turgenev

This article tells about the influence of the poetics of Ivan Turgenev's works on the features of early Anton Chekhov’s drama – the student play “Platonov” (1880–1881), “Ivanov” (edited in 1888–1889) and “The Wood Demon” (1888–1889). The author studies in detail the degree of Chekhov's familiarity with the body of Turgenev's dramatic texts. The author reveals the unity of the chronotope of the noble nest, distant plot similarities (self-serving motivations of actions), and the thematic motif of self-condemnation of the characters. It is shown that in Chekhov's plays there are characters typologically close to Turgenev (Superfluous Man, Hamlet, Don Quixote, “Turgenev's girl”, sponger), and there are also such elements of the poetics of Turgenev's drama as monologue, the reception of interruptions, micro-plots. The article draws attention to the fact that Chekhov was the successor of the dramatic tradition established in Turgenev's work, and developed, rather than making direct borrowings. Thus was the nature of Chekhov's creative work, focused on a dialogue with the Turgenev heritage.

Chekhov and geographical determinism

Literary scholars have recently shown growing interest in interrelation between Chekhov’s worldview and creativity. This article is dedicated to this topic. The question of the writer's worldview has long caused intense debate. There are multiple works dedicated to Chekhov's religious worldview, natural science materialism, and naturalism; however, the topic of Chekhov and geographical determinism is poorly studied. Although the idea of geographical determinism and the impact of vast expanses of Russia upon people’s lives occurs in the correspondence and works of Chekhov at various times. The subject of this research is Chekhov's works that contain the ideology of geographical determinism. The scientific novelty consists in the systematic and comprehensive analysis of the idea of geographical determinism in Chekhov's works. The influence of the opinions of different representatives of geographical determinism upon Chekhov's worldview is established. The author observes a connection between Chekhov and geographical determinism. Apathy, yarn, exhaustion, hopelessness, loneliness and alternation of excitability and fatigue of Chekhov's characters are associated with the geographical peculiarities of Russia, its vast expanses, severe winters, dullness, and monotony. The conducted research confirms the value of analysis of the connection between Chekhov and geographical determinism in the context of studying Chekhov's writing style.

Pushkin’s allusions in the comedy of A. P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard"

The study of Pushkin's allusions in the works of Anton Chekhov has been carried out for several decades. The relevance and novelty of this topic is associated with new observations and searches for intertextual connections, the expansion of the context of analysis, including in connection with the appeal to the dramatic works of the writer. This work considers the allusions from the works of A. Pushkin "The Queen of Spades", "Boris Godunov" and others, their role in the artistic whole of the comedy of A. P. Chekhov "The Cherry Orchard". The effectiveness of the approach which was outlined in the studies of R.G. Nazirov in the 1990s, as well as S.A. Kibalnik, M.V. Litovchenko and other domestic scientists is confirmed. Literary allusions resonate in Chekhov's artistic world, cumulatively marking a transitional stage of cultural and historical life and its personal comprehension. The intertextuality of Chekhov's works allows us to create an integral image of Russian culture: the semantic relations of allusions and reminiscences are combined with the multilayered symbolism of sound, hearing, gesture, touch - in general, the experience of time and the multiple meanings of words. The semantic "expansion" of Chekhov's play text leads not only to comparisons with Russian classics, but also to an open finale - a future literary context, implementing the "principle of plot uncertainty" and removing the uniqueness/truthfulness of any interpretation.

PECULIARITIES OF COMPREHENSION OF CHEKHOV’s WORKS IN SPAIN

The article deals with the process of comprehension of A.P. Chekhov's works in the Spanish culture. It’s based on Russian and foreign sources. The author of the article demonstrates the most significant moments in the understanding of the Russian writer by Spanish literary critics, theater directors and film directors. The article contains a brief overview of key periodicals and books, plays and film adaptations that illustrate the evolution of comprehension of Chekhov's works. Citations of Spanish culture figures, critics, translators and journalists are given by author's translation from their works and interviews. The article illustrates the period from the first mention of Chekhov's name in the Spanish press in 1894 to the nowadays. The author pays special attention to the first screen versions of the Russian playwright’s plays and the most eccentric experimental staging in the capital and provincial theaters of Spain.

«Граммофонист Иванов»: к вопросу о прагматике вторичного текста

The article analyzes the behavioral patterns (gestures, roles, scripts) and texts of Vlas Doroshevich (in particular, articles and essays by Doroshevich written him about V. P. Burenin, A. I. Herzen, D. L. Mordovtsev). One of the most famous books during the life of the writer “The Way of the Cross” (1915) is almost forgotten today. However, historians and literary historians still study his book “Sakhalin. Hard Labour” (1903). Being a contemporary of A. P. Chekhov, Vlas Doroshevich, who lived after him for almost 20 years, repeatedly turned to the life history of his contemporary, recognized as a genius during his lifetime. In such an appeal, one can see not only the performance of newspaper and journal work due to the commercialization of literary work, but also life-creating practices. One of the most obvious practices is a trip to Sakhalin and a description of travel experiences in a book. On the material of essays, feuilletons, memories that were written by Doroshevich for the Sutin’s ‘Russian word’ this patterns are investigated. Firstly, it’s self-representation as Famous Other (often Genius). So Doroshevich wrote about Chekhov, however, most of the information is not related to the life and work of Chekhov, but closely connected to the life and work of Doroshevich. Secondly journalistic fiction filled the voids. The automatism of this type of writing is already exposed at the level of headings, among which the majority are built according to the unified model of ‘Chekhov and X’: Chekhov and Maupassant, Chekhov and criticism, Chekhov and Sakhalin, Chekhov and Suvorin, Chekhov and the title of writer, Chekhov and Marx, Chekhov and the stage, Chekhov, Tolstoy and Gorky. The last text, replicating the narrative model, chosen in the feuilleton Chekhov and Suvorin: X was very fond of Y, as Y was very fond of X. Thirdly, Doroshevich has not only parodied contemporaries, but also parodied himself. Thus “Memories of Chekhov” deceive the expectations of readers. The narrator Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov writes his text as Doroshevich himself wrote about Chekvov several years before. Lastly, pragmatics of Doroshevich'es texts is conceptualized in the pattern Simeon, who did not live to see the Christ. Doroshevich used this idiom when he's speaking about forgotten Russian writer Daniil Mordovtsev. Mordovtsev was so-called ‘little man’ of Russian literature. Doroshevich did not want to be the same, so Chekhov’s symbolic capital needed him as a way to change his own life, endow it with new, albeit secondary, meanings.

Lie and truth in flash fiction by N.S. Leskov of 1870–1880s

The relevance of the subject is determined by the growing interest of contemporary literary criticism to the problem of the playful features, the role of experiment and the innovation the Leskov’s art. The article describes the peculiarities of the writer's understanding of the problem of the power of frozen ideas that cause a person to think and act according to the standard, clashes between the carriers of various "truths" on the material of the stories "The iron will" (1876), "The Kolivanian man" (1888), "The little mistake" (1883) and "The Story about Devil's Grandma" (after 1886). These works are distinguished by genres and time of writing. On the other hand, the motives of deception, switch, power of stereotype over "devil doll" unites these novels. The replacement of names is repeated many times in Leskov’s novels and begins to mean the replacement of the essence itself. A chance and fate denote living life itself, free, unpredictable; stubborn characters do not believe in it, and it leads them to a tragicomic ending. In addition, Leskov comes close to the constant theme for Chekhov's works of falsity of views, which seem to their bearers to be the absolute truth, power over a person of dogma and stereotypes, a clash between bearers of different "truths". In the legend, this important for Leskov problem is formulated directly, in novels and short stories – with the irony inherent in the author, "narrative provocations", with the discrepancy between what is said and what it means, what the author thinks about. As a whole, researched motives, methods, the poetics of game and the experiments with the genre show us Leskov’s artistic innovation, "transitional" phenomenon in the literature of the end of 19 century. Either it shows us certain convergences with New Prose of the turn of 19 and 20 centuries.

Пьеса Т. Уайлдера “Наш городок” в контексте драматургии А. Чехова

The research is connected with a new approach to understanding the poetics of T. Wilder's play “Our Town” (1938). The comparative and intertextual methods of research are applied. This methodological approach made it possible to determine the semantic orientations of the artistic world of T. Wilder, to trace the features of Chekhov's aesthetic principles reflection in his play. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the absence of dramatic heritage of T. Wilder in the context of Chekhov's works in contemporary literary criticism of studies. The chosen scientific approach testifies that the development/assimilation of the experience of Chekhov's dramaturgy by the American playwright was promoted by the ability of Chekhov's poetics to vary and to exist in various contexts. A distinctive feature of the play “Our Town” is its dialogic attitude to Chekhov's plays, which affected, first of all, the space-time organization of the text. The comprehension of the poetics of T. Wilder's play “Our Town” through the prism of Chekhov's dramatic art fills the lacuna that existed until recently in literary criticism. Chekhov's motifs, organically entering the art of “Our Town”, expand its semantic horizons. Despite his own interpretation of Chekhov's artistic principles, the depiction of life and human in T. Wilder's play is Chekhov's fundamentally every day and non-heroic thing, and the whole system of pictorial means is aimed at the construction of ordinary events to universal and general philosophical level.

Gender Differences of Translation Transformations Based on the Short Story of A.P. Chekhov's 'Lady with a Dog'

main idea of the paper is the influence of the linguistic personality as the author of the secondary text on the translation of a work of art in the gender aspect. article deals with the translations of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's story The Lady with the Dog. Based on the classification of male and female speech, the linguistic personality of the English translators of Anton Chekhov's work of art is considered. It is spoken in detail that translators reproduce certain types of gender models according to the leading trends in the change of the entire socio-cultural system. analysis of the translation of various stylistic means is conducted. Female translators have transformed stylistic means more expressively. male translator is in some cases ready to step back from the original, expressing his own creativity and talent. In this case the translation does not lose its brightness, but, on the contrary, it acquires new colours of irony. Corpus linguistics is examined in our paper. In order to track the coincidence of the frequency of words in the original and in translation, we compare the usage of words statistics in the British National Corpus, and also in the National Corpus of the Russian language. method of corpus linguistics allows to analyze the frequency of word usage and years of use.