Interpreting Chekhov’s Prose
Autor Leonard A. Polakiewiczen Limba Engleză Hardback – 9 iul 2024
Works examined include those dealing with Chekhov’s astonishingly accurate and artistic portrayal of a wide variety of illnesses—without the use of any medical terms. These works are shown to be not mere “clinical studies,” but genuine, impressive works of art. The author, who suffered half of his life from tuberculosis, effectively portrayed many characters afflicted with this disease which was incurable at the time. Many of these works reveal an indisputable symbiosis of the doctor and the artist. Chekhov maintained that “in Goethe the poet lived amicably side by side with the scientist”—a fitting description of him as well.
Doctors, the most frequently portrayed characters in Chekhov’s oeuvre are appropriately subjected to extensive analysis, as are the themes of fate and death and dying that figure so prominently in Chekhov’s work. Attention is accorded to imaginative fictional works dealing with philosophy and the theme of crime and punishment, as well as The Island of Sakhalin, a narrative of non-fictional sociological content.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9798887195667
Pagini: 432
Dimensiuni: 156 x 234 x 24 mm
Greutate: 0.78 kg
Editura: Academic Studies Press
Colecția Academic Studies Press
Locul publicării:Boston, MA, United States
Pagini: 432
Dimensiuni: 156 x 234 x 24 mm
Greutate: 0.78 kg
Editura: Academic Studies Press
Colecția Academic Studies Press
Locul publicării:Boston, MA, United States
Cuprins
Acknowledgements
About the Text
Foreword
Introduction, by Donald Rayfield
1. Literature and Medicine
2. Quackеry and Charlatanism
3. “Late-blooming Flowers”: An Experimental Narrative
4. “Typhus”: Chef-d’oeuvre
5. “The Doctor”: Pursuit of “Truth”
6. “Enemies”: Protest and the Protesting Hero
7. “An Unpleasantness”: A Rare Case of Violent Protest
8. “The Steppe”: Syncretism and Personification
9. “The Princess”: Diagnosis—Narcissistic Personality Disorder
10. “The Bet” and “Head Gardener’s Story”: Crime and Punishment
11. “Taman′” as Intertext to “Thieves”: Dialogicity Extended
12. “The Spouse”: A Ubiquitous Theme
13. Fatе
16. Dеath and Dying
15. Thе Island of Sakhalin and Notеs from a Dеad Housе: Penological Studies
Works Citеd
Indеx of Works by Chеkhov
Index of Names
About the Text
Foreword
Introduction, by Donald Rayfield
1. Literature and Medicine
2. Quackеry and Charlatanism
3. “Late-blooming Flowers”: An Experimental Narrative
4. “Typhus”: Chef-d’oeuvre
5. “The Doctor”: Pursuit of “Truth”
6. “Enemies”: Protest and the Protesting Hero
7. “An Unpleasantness”: A Rare Case of Violent Protest
8. “The Steppe”: Syncretism and Personification
9. “The Princess”: Diagnosis—Narcissistic Personality Disorder
10. “The Bet” and “Head Gardener’s Story”: Crime and Punishment
11. “Taman′” as Intertext to “Thieves”: Dialogicity Extended
12. “The Spouse”: A Ubiquitous Theme
13. Fatе
16. Dеath and Dying
15. Thе Island of Sakhalin and Notеs from a Dеad Housе: Penological Studies
Works Citеd
Indеx of Works by Chеkhov
Index of Names
Recenzii
“Interpreting Chekhov’s Prose is reader-friendly. Because of its accessible style, it will be used in undergraduate and graduate seminars not only as a unique source of information, but also as a tool for introducing students of literature to the mastery of textual analysis.”
— Galina Rylkova, Russian language journal
“The author possesses analytical skills that are nearly lost in our time — the ability to “squeeze” a text like an orange, extracting every last drop of meaning. Polyakevich analyzes Chekhov’s stories in the same way poetic texts were studied during the golden age of structuralism… Leonard Polyakevich’s book is one of the most serious and profound studies of Chekhov’s prose I’ve read in recent years.”
— Andrei Stepanov, Chekhovskii vestnik (translated from Russian)
“Leonard A. Polakiewicz sets out in Interpreting Chekhov’s Prose to tackle, through a close and knowledgeable analysis of a broad swath of Chekhov’s work, the author’s moral complexity as well as the impact of his experience as a physician, and increasingly, his knowledge of his own impending early death from tuberculosis.”
— Robin Feuer Miller, The Russian Review
“In this book, different from many other books about Chekhov, the object of analysis becomes not only the well-known masterpieces written by Chekhov in the last years of his life, but the entire body of the writer’s works beginning with the earliest. The book deals with philosophical questions of life and death, crime and punishment, fate and randomness. The last of these oppositions is extremely important for the concept of the entire book: in his analysis of Chekhov’s short stories, Polakiewicz consistently distinguishes between what is out of the hands of the human being (‘fate’) and what depends on his will and efforts and for what he bears responsibility. Precisely by not wishing to justify the passivity of characters, and by stressing activity and will, it seems to me, this is where the important ‘new word’ lies which this book presents for an understanding of Chekhov.
The dominant feature characteristic for contemporary literary studies is an interest in social processes and practices. The author of the book however possesses the almost lost skill in our time of formal analysis—the capacity to ‘to squeeze’ the text like an orange right down to the last drop of thought. He analyzes Chekhov’s stories in a way that poetic texts were analyzed in the golden age of Structuralism—fixating on the subtle back and forth exchanges in the ‘lower’ structural levels of phonetics and prosody, with a demonstration of hidden symmetry and asymmetry, and other peculiarities of the Jakobsonian ‘Poetry of Grammar’ (compare for sure the brilliant analysis of the story ‘Typhus’). In the process of analysis, all formal elements receive a semantic emphasis. In this respect, Polakiewicz’s book is a strong argument in the long- standing dispute of Chekhov’s specialists regarding the concept of the ‘accidental’ organization of Chekhov texts which Aleksandr Chudakov advanced forty years ago. Polakiewicz is on the side of those who consider that ‘everything is not accidental’ in Chekhov.
If it is permissible to resort to a medical metaphor, Chekhov’s world is similar to the nervous system: It is a labyrinth consisting of many mutually connected characters (neurons) and leitmotifs (dendrites and axons). In order to orient oneself in this diversified system it is extremely difficult, but Polakiewicz demonstrates a superior knowledge of the texts. Only with such a profound knowledge of the text is it possible to analyze the most complex world of Chekhov. Polakiewicz’s book is one of the most serious and deepest studies of Chekhov’s prose.”
— Andrei D. Stepanov, St. Petersburg University (translated by Harold K. Schefski, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Long Beach)
“Polakiewicz’s chapters are really a linked series of essays, which have undergone considerable revision since they were first published: they amount to one of the most substantial studies of Chekhov’s work (and there are many such, in many languages) ever published. Polakiewicz, however, stands out from other critics in two ways. Firstly, he gives in each essay a reading closer and more accurate than most academics are capable of, a reading which is in Chekhovian spirit utterly free of dogma and critical theory, and which is extremely well informed in terms of the Zeitgeist in late nineteenth-century Russia… Secondly, Polakiewicz is attracted to work which most critics (including myself) have passed over too quickly and have underestimated.”
— Donald Rayfield, Professor Emeritus of Russian and Georgian, Queen Mary College, University of London
— Galina Rylkova, Russian language journal
“The author possesses analytical skills that are nearly lost in our time — the ability to “squeeze” a text like an orange, extracting every last drop of meaning. Polyakevich analyzes Chekhov’s stories in the same way poetic texts were studied during the golden age of structuralism… Leonard Polyakevich’s book is one of the most serious and profound studies of Chekhov’s prose I’ve read in recent years.”
— Andrei Stepanov, Chekhovskii vestnik (translated from Russian)
“Leonard A. Polakiewicz sets out in Interpreting Chekhov’s Prose to tackle, through a close and knowledgeable analysis of a broad swath of Chekhov’s work, the author’s moral complexity as well as the impact of his experience as a physician, and increasingly, his knowledge of his own impending early death from tuberculosis.”
— Robin Feuer Miller, The Russian Review
“In this book, different from many other books about Chekhov, the object of analysis becomes not only the well-known masterpieces written by Chekhov in the last years of his life, but the entire body of the writer’s works beginning with the earliest. The book deals with philosophical questions of life and death, crime and punishment, fate and randomness. The last of these oppositions is extremely important for the concept of the entire book: in his analysis of Chekhov’s short stories, Polakiewicz consistently distinguishes between what is out of the hands of the human being (‘fate’) and what depends on his will and efforts and for what he bears responsibility. Precisely by not wishing to justify the passivity of characters, and by stressing activity and will, it seems to me, this is where the important ‘new word’ lies which this book presents for an understanding of Chekhov.
The dominant feature characteristic for contemporary literary studies is an interest in social processes and practices. The author of the book however possesses the almost lost skill in our time of formal analysis—the capacity to ‘to squeeze’ the text like an orange right down to the last drop of thought. He analyzes Chekhov’s stories in a way that poetic texts were analyzed in the golden age of Structuralism—fixating on the subtle back and forth exchanges in the ‘lower’ structural levels of phonetics and prosody, with a demonstration of hidden symmetry and asymmetry, and other peculiarities of the Jakobsonian ‘Poetry of Grammar’ (compare for sure the brilliant analysis of the story ‘Typhus’). In the process of analysis, all formal elements receive a semantic emphasis. In this respect, Polakiewicz’s book is a strong argument in the long- standing dispute of Chekhov’s specialists regarding the concept of the ‘accidental’ organization of Chekhov texts which Aleksandr Chudakov advanced forty years ago. Polakiewicz is on the side of those who consider that ‘everything is not accidental’ in Chekhov.
If it is permissible to resort to a medical metaphor, Chekhov’s world is similar to the nervous system: It is a labyrinth consisting of many mutually connected characters (neurons) and leitmotifs (dendrites and axons). In order to orient oneself in this diversified system it is extremely difficult, but Polakiewicz demonstrates a superior knowledge of the texts. Only with such a profound knowledge of the text is it possible to analyze the most complex world of Chekhov. Polakiewicz’s book is one of the most serious and deepest studies of Chekhov’s prose.”
— Andrei D. Stepanov, St. Petersburg University (translated by Harold K. Schefski, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Long Beach)
“Polakiewicz’s chapters are really a linked series of essays, which have undergone considerable revision since they were first published: they amount to one of the most substantial studies of Chekhov’s work (and there are many such, in many languages) ever published. Polakiewicz, however, stands out from other critics in two ways. Firstly, he gives in each essay a reading closer and more accurate than most academics are capable of, a reading which is in Chekhovian spirit utterly free of dogma and critical theory, and which is extremely well informed in terms of the Zeitgeist in late nineteenth-century Russia… Secondly, Polakiewicz is attracted to work which most critics (including myself) have passed over too quickly and have underestimated.”
— Donald Rayfield, Professor Emeritus of Russian and Georgian, Queen Mary College, University of London