Intermedial Parameters of Chekhov’s Plots: Literature in the Face of the Crisis of Sign-Symbolic Activity (On the Material of Chekhov’s Early Prose)

The article raises the question of Chekhov’s rethinking of various medial “tools” (letter, printed text, image, painting, literature, theater, etc.) in the context of epochal artistic challenges, the main of which is the crisis of sign-symbolic activity. This problem has not received sufficient coverage in literary studies (especially on the material of the writer’s early works), and the article attempts to at least partially fill this gap. The proposed study is based on the categorical structure of modern narratology: the focus is not on intermediality as a selfsufficient phenomenon, but on its contribution to the development of stories told by Chekhov. From the analysis of the writer’s works, it becomes clear that this contribution is not only extremely large, but in many cases exhausts the expediency of using intermedial writing techniques. Chekhov represents both artistic and non-artistic media in his works. In the first case, the writer states the elimination of the aesthetic code (“Reading”, “Art”, “A Tragic Actor”, “Marya Ivanovna”): art becomes part of everyday life and ultimately loses selfidentity, performing only its peripheral functions (from the medium between the viewer/reader and the artistic universe it turns into a means of expressing gratitude, creating an image, maintaining psychological health, etc.). Non-artistic media are institutionalised and fetishised; as a result, they acquire an unjustifiably high value (“Living Memories”, “The Collection”). Ideas about the axiological and causative properties of media are de-automated in Chekhov’s narrative. The writer places the image, object, theatrical performance, or verbal text in the conditions when they begin to “incorrectly” influence the narrated events (or lose all ability to change something in the diegetic world). Reading a book can be a reason for murder (“A Drama”), a severe psychological state (“Reading”), deterioration of interpersonal relations (“The Vaudeville”); a painting ceases to be the “main character” in the artist’s life (“Talent”); a blot is capable of destroying the career of an official (“Living Memories”); a love message causes indifference in a girl, which, however, does not prevent her from reciprocating the feeling of her boyfriend (“Love”); litter becomes a collection of memorabilia, key for the character’s everyday life and even his self-consciousness (“The Collection”). The article takes only the first step in the systematic study of Chekhov’s narration in terms of intermediality. Attracting material from Chekhov’s mature and late creative work will probably give impetus to a deeper study of the issues raised in this study.

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