Woman at the Ball. “Anna in the Neck” by Anton Chekhov and “The Psychology of a Husband from Syros” by Emmanuel Roidis: An Attempt of Comparison

The paper presents the first attempt to compare two short stories – Anna in the Neck by Anton Chekhov and a well-known short story by the Greek author Emmanuel Roidis Psychology of a Husband from Syros. Both texts were published at the same time (in 1895) and are considered to be masterpieces. The initial motivation for such textual analysis became almost a complete coincidence between the plots of the two stories. A series of telling coincidences and contradictions observed between the analyzed stories require some kind of explanation which will allow us to view both texts from the different angle. The paper aims to determine the correlation between the writers’ biographies and the personality traits with the characteristics of the protagonists and the style of story telling.

Chekhov as a writer and as a doctor

In his short autobiography, Anton Pavlovich wrote that after a great number of years, although he could not remember what exactly had prompted him at one time to choose the profession of a doctor and enter the medical faculty of the university, he knew for sure that subsequently he never regretted his choice. In his letters, he even wrote that he considered literature to be his wife, while medicine was his mistress, and when he got tired of one, he turned his gaze to the other. «Perhaps this is immoral to some extent,» he wrote, «but I never get bored. Why not chase two hares if there were hounds!» Chekhov began his medical practice in the Zvenigorod district of the Moscow province. He was lucky to have as his mentor an outstanding physician P. A. Arkhangelsky, whose fame as a practicing therapist was so great that young doctors from almost all over the country came to him to gain experience. The eminent doctor was very pleased with the success of the talented young man, and even left him solely for the entire hospital as a practicing doctor. Such activity helped Chekhov not only gain invaluable medical experience, but also formed the basis of many of his works, such as «The Runaway», «Village Doctors», «On Official Duty». Anton Chekhov devoted the first half of the day to receiving patients, and in the afternoon, he took part in autopsies, acted as a medical expert, and consulted especially difficult and controversial cases of diseases.

Peculiarities of Translating Russian Polynegative Sentences into Georgian (According to the Stories of Anton Chekhov and Their Translations)

Since grammatical rejection construction belongs to one of the linguistic universals, its study is very relevant to us. Russian and Georgian languages ​​are typologically different, in particular in terms of the use of double negation. That is why we addressed the problems related to the translation of Russian polynegative pronouns into Georgian.The aim of our paper is to reveal the peculiarities of translating Russian polynegative sentences into Georgian. Our task was to reveal the peculiarities of conveying polynegativity in Georgian, where initially (from the beginning) only a single rejection was possible. We have selected Anton Chekhov's stories and their Georgian translations as the research material. While working on the topic, we have used the following research methods: scientific literature analysis, contrastive analysis methods, elements of statistical analysis.The analysis of the Georgian translations of the Russian negative verbs revealed that mainly the Russian general negative (complete negation, общеотрицательные) sentences were translated into Georgian through the negative (partial negation -частноотрицательные) sentences. If in Russian the negation belongs to "Deeprichastie", in Georgian this inversion is conveyed through the verb without the particles expressing the negation.

A Comparative Study of Modern Theatrical Technicalities in The Glass Menagerie and The Cherry Orchard

The nineteenth Century produced some of the most complex plays that today represent modern theatrical technicalities that differed in several ways from twentieth Century plays. In the twentieth Century, Tennessee Williams was acknowledged for the diversity of genres he covered in his plays, most of which focused on the dark aspects of human experience, which lent significant technicalities to his plays, most notably, The Glass Menagerie. Similarly, Anton Chekhov is a nineteenth Century playwright who developed plays that introduced several theatrical technicalities. He was renowned for portraying realism, a feature that characterised 19th Century theatre. Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard is a play considered the landmark of modern theatrical technicalities. This study explores three ways in which Williams and Chekhov made The Glass Menagerie and Cherry Orchard respectively as landmarks of theatrical technicalities, i.e., the multiplicity of genres, effective use of indirect action and irony as theatrical conventions, and the integration and portrayal of nineteenth Century and twentieth Century realism. The research finds that while Williams employs a multiplicity of genres and the use of irony as the ideal theatrical conventions, Chekhov integrates all three elements to create modern theatrical technicalities that not only influence the audience's perception of the characters but also the playwright’s intention. This study is important for both undergraduate and postgraduate readers as it can enrich a reader’s thinking about different theatrical techniques and conventions used in both plays.

ANALYSIS OF CONFLICT IN A MISFORTUNE BY ANTON CHEKHOV

This paper aims to find the conflict that exists in the story of A Misfortune by Anton Chekhov. This research method is descriptive analytical research methods. The data collection technique of this study uses documentary techniques sourced from the stories of A Misfortune by Anton Chekhov. The conflict found by researchers in the form of sentences, phrases and word quotations. Based on the analysis carried out, the researchers also found two types of conflicts, namely people vs. self and people vs. people. The first, the main character who has a conflict with himself such as feelings of doubt, confusion, anger, chaos, sadness, despair, shock, fear, regret, revenge, and annoyance. Second, the main character has problem with other character figures such as quarrels, debates, disagreements, and disputes.

Literary Parallels: Anton Chekhov and Mór Jókai

The article as a whole describes the work of the Hungarian prose writer Mór Jókai, the topics and problemanics of his works. But the author’s attention is focused on the “Russian text” in the novels of Mór Jókai, compared with the “Hungarian text” in the works of Anton Chekhov in the 1880s.

Anton Chekhov Theater in the perception of Harbin Russians

This article examines the criticism and publicistic writing about A. P. Chekhov’s dramaturgy and theatre conducted by the Harbin Russians in the early XX century. Russian immigrants of that time did not break ties with the native culture seeing it as a source of spiritual revival and hopes for returning to Russia. Chekhov was an integral part of their intellectual and cultural life. The ideological and aesthetic views of Harbin Russians resonated with the views of Western immigrants, although indicating certain differences. The publications of Eastern immigrants rarely contain skeptical arguments about Chekhov's role in the hierarchy of classics; for Harbin Russians, Chekhov resembles the pride of the Russian literature. The author analyzes the most characteristic articles, considering the fact that they were published in newspapers “on the occasion”. The conclusion is made that the topic  of “Eastern Immigration and the Chekhov” is poorly studied, which defines its scientific relevance, contributes to more extensive coverage of literary heritage of the white émigré, and enriches the knowledge on personality of the writer, his prose, and theater.

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.

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.

“HERE IS MY PLAN”. AN ARTISTIC DETAIL AND ITS ROLE IN THE FORMATION OF SEMANTICS OF THE TIME FLOW IN THE CHERRY ORCHARD BY CHEKHOV

The article makes an attempt to evaluate the role that an artistic detail plays in the formation of meaning related to the concept of time in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov. The episode where Yermolai Lopakhin represents the contents of his plan is taken as a material for the analysis. The examination of the plan becomes very important if one uses it for interpretation of a vision of the future that the character suggests. The close analysis of the details included into the plan allows finding that Lopakhin’s image of future life contains some elements of the past or the recurrence of what already existed in the past. The linguistic and semantic repetitions and intersections for the sense bearing components of out-of-stage artistic details related to imaginary future and the details that exist in the stage and out-of-stage space of the present lead to the formation of certain motifs. The examination of the system of details in the context of the episode where Lopakhin describes his plan and in the context of the literary text of the play as a whole gives an opportunity to look from a new angle at the semantics of the time flow and at the ontological layer in the last Chekhov’s play