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/ Biographies / Chekhov A. P.
Chekhov A. P.
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Russian writer, Honorary Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1900-02).
He started as a writer of satires and humorous short stories (a pseudonym Antosha Chekhonte, etc.).
The main themes of creativity ideological quests intellectuals, dissatisfaction with the humdrum existence of some mental "humility" before the filth of the lives of others ("a Boring story", 1889; "the Duel", 1891; "the house with the mezzanine", 1896; "ionic", 1898; "the lady with the dog", 1899).
In the stories "a woman's Kingdom" (1894), "the Peasants" (1897), "In the ravine" (1900) showed the savagery and brutality of rural life.
A great force for social and artistic generalization of the Czechs made up in the stories of "Ward No. 6" (1892), "the Man in a case" (1898).
In the play "the Seagull" (1896), "Uncle Vanya" (1897), Three sisters (1901), the Cherry orchard (1904), staged by the Moscow Art Theatre, has created a disturbing emotional atmosphere of foreboding things to come.
The main character of Chekhov is an ordinary person with his daily affairs and worries.
A subtle psychologist, a master of subtext, who combined humor and lyricism in a peculiar way.
* * *
Anton Pavlovich CHEKHOV [January 17 (29), 1860, Taganrog July 2 (15), 1904, Badenweiler, Southern Germany; buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery], Russian writer.
Family.
Study.
Antosha Chehonte
He was born in a large family of a merchant of the third guild, the owner of a grocery store; he studied at the classical gymnasium, at the same time helping his father in trade.
Chekhov's first literary experiments in vaudeville, scenes, essays, anecdotes, etc.belong to the gymnasium years; he sends some of them to the editorial offices of the capital's humorous magazines.
After entering the medical faculty of Moscow University (1879), literary work became the main source of income for Chekhov: since that time, his "humorous trifles" have been regularly published on the pages of mass illustrated magazines under various pseudonyms (Antosha Chekhov, The Man without a Spleen, etc.).
After graduating from the university (1884), Chekhov, working as a district doctor, continues to "write a lot": the main genre in his work of this period is a short story, a sketch, a sketch, traditional for mass periodicals, the basis of the plot of which is a funny or ridiculous incident, a curious or funny incident from life.
Scattered through the periodicals, written within a certain volume and by a certain deadline, the works of this time made up the collections "Motley Stories" (1886) and "Innocent Speeches" (1887).
Entering the " big " literature
Chekhov's artistic discoveries
A new stage in Chekhov's creative biography "entering literature" is associated with the beginning of his regular cooperation in the newspaper of A. S. Suvorin " Novoe Vremya "(since 1886), where Chekhov's works first appeared under his real name, and the publication of the collection" At Dusk " (1887), highlighted by criticism from the general flow of mass fiction (the writer's undoubted talent, his ability to draw pictures of nature and human types with a few strokes, to create a poetic mood) was recognized.
In the same 1887, with the play "Ivanov" (staged on the stage of the Korsh Theater), Chekhov summed up his early dramatic searches, which had begun in his high school years, and at the same time laid the foundation for the poetics of the new dramatic art.
The attention of critics, readers ' sympathies and, most importantly, support from leading writers (D. V. Grigorovich, A. N. Pleshcheyev, V. G. Korolenko) were regarded by Chekhov as an invitation to professional literary activity, which required him to reconsider his own attitude to literary pursuits as a way of earning money or fun fun.
In the story "Steppe", published in 1888 in the magazine "Northern Bulletin", Chekhov's main artistic discoveries were identified: the absence of a traditional hero for Russian literature expressing the author's worldview position; the reconstruction of the surrounding world, refracted by emotional human perception; the transfer of the mental state of the characters through "random" replicas and gestures.
Trip to Sakhalin
In 1890, Chekhov interrupted his successful literary work and went on a long journey through Siberia to the island of Sakhalin to "study the life of convicts and exiles".
The creative result of the trip is the book "Sakhalin Island "(1895), written in the genre of" travel notes"; it is based not only on personal impressions from numerous meetings, but also on statistical data collected by him on the island.
Literary reputation
Russian Russian literature In the first half of the 1890s Chekhov became one of the most widely read writers in Russia.
His works regularly appear in the magazines "Severny Vestnik" and "Russkaya Mysl" (since 1892), the newspapers "Novoye Vremya "(until 1893) and" Russkie Vedomosti"; separate editions and collections are published ("Stories", 1888;" Gloomy people", 1890; Novellas and Stories", 1894), which are constantly reprinted, causing a wide resonance in literary circles.
Without denying Chekhov's growing talent, criticism is mostly unable to accept the peculiarities of his "objective" (as he himself characterized it) artistic manner, accuses the writer of indifference to social problems, the lack of direct author's assessments and worldview in general, that he writes "with cold blood", excessive "photographing", etc.; in the statements of the heroes, he sees the writer's position: so, the words of an old professor about his lack of a "general idea" (the story "Boring Story"1889) were perceived as an author's recognition and they were projected onto all of Chekhov's work.
The exception was the story "Chamber No. 6" (1892), for which an indisputable public significance was recognized.
In general, Chekhov gained a reputation as a writer who shuns social problems, a writer of everyday life and a master of subtle psychological analysis.
Problems of short stories
In numerous stories of this time, Chekhov addresses the study of the soul of a modern person who is influenced by various social, scientific and philosophical ideas: pessimism ("Lights", 1888), social Darwinism ("Duel", 1891), radical populism ("The Story of an Unknown Man", 1893); solves the issues of family relations that worried society ("Three years", "Spouse", "Ariadne", all 1895), abnormal mental phenomena ("Black Monk", 1894) , etc.
The basis of the plots is not the collision of a person with a rough social environment, but the internal conflict of his spiritual world: Chekhov's heroes are "gloomy", boring, people living "in the twilight", are vitally untenable due to their own inability to creative realization, inability to overcome mental alienation from other people; their misfortunes do not have a fatal predestination and are not historically conditioned, they suffer because of their own everyday mistakes, bad deeds, moral and mental apathy.
The innovation of drama
At the same time, Chekhov continues to work in the dramatic genre, writing small plays, "jokes", vaudeville ("Wedding", 1890), the comedy "Leshiy" (1890).
In the mid 1890s, Chekhov returned to his dramatic search, trying to transfer the basic principles of "objective" prose into plays: the plot sharpness was replaced by an outwardly calm course of events, and all dramatic collisions moved into the sphere of spiritual experiences of the characters.
In the plot, the elements of entertainment were weakened, which was made up for by the psychological saturation of the action, the tension of which was supported by "random" replicas that acquired symbolic coloring, as well as by non verbal means (pauses, gestures of the characters, "extraneous" sounds, trifles of the situation), which together created a psychological subtext that was extremely significant for the perception of Chekhov's drama.
However, Russian theaters were not ready for an adequate reproduction of the new drama: the performance of the play "The Seagull" on the stage of the Alexander Insky Theater (1896) ended in failure, and only the production of the Moscow Art Theater (1898) opened the art of Chekhov's playwright to the public.
The productions of subsequent Chekhov plays ("Uncle Vanya", 1899; "Three Sisters", 1901," The Cherry Orchard", 1904) were performed only on the stage of this theater.
The last period of creativity
In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Chekhov was a recognized and popular master: magazines are looking for his participation, the appearance of new works is regarded by critics as an event of literary life, disputes around them develop into socio political discussions about the future of the Russian village, the role of the intelligentsia in society, etc.
New themes arise in his work.
True to the principles of" artistic objectivity", Chekhov creates gloomy pictures of peasant life torn from culture ("My Life", 1896;" Men", 1897;" In the ravine", 1900).
The theme of moral degradation and spiritual emptiness of the Russian intelligentsia, its inability to social and personal life is raised in the story "The House with a mezzanine" (1896), "the little trilogy" "The Man in the case", "Gooseberry", "About Love" (1898).
At the same time many of the characters in his latest works harder experiencing "the yearning for the ideal", experience the desire for a new and better life ("For life", 1898; "the Bishop", 1902; "the Bride", 1903).
Alien moral teaching, religious sermons and social utopianism, Chekhov does not prescribe recipes moral improvement and social reorganization or spiritual transformation, but in the torture and agony of his characters, in their dissatisfaction with the meaninglessness of their existence sees proof of principle possible for a person to make a life truly worthy and happy.
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