The Chekhov Play A New Interpretation

The author's contention is that Chekhov's plays have often been misinterpreted by scholars and directors, particularly through their failure to adequately balance the comic and tragic elements inherent in these works. Through a close examination of the form and content of Chekhov's dramas, the author shows how deeply pessimistic or overly optimistic interpretations fail to sufficiently account for the rich complexity and ambiguity of these plays. The author suggests that, by accepting that Chekhov's plays are synthetic tragi-comedies which juxtapose potentially tragic sub-texts with essentially comic texts, critics and directors are more likely to produce richer and more deeply satisfying interpretations of these works. Besides being of general interest to any reader interested in understanding Chekhov's work, the book is intended to be of particular interest to students of Drama and Theatre Studies and to potential directors of these subtle plays.

Many now consider Chekhov a playwright equal to Shakespeare. Senelick studies how his reputation evolved, and how the presentation of his plays varied and altered from their initial productions in Russia to recent postmodern deconstructions.

In this luminous book of criticism, Chekhov's foremost Russian interpreter offers to Western readers a remarkably clear and commanding appraisal of the master's work.

This text attempts to map the unique structure and meaning that comprise Chekhov's immensely rich artistic universe. The prime components of his theatrical technique and fictional world are explored to uncover the basic principles governing the Chekhov's universe.

The Undiscovered Chekhov gives us, in rich abundance, a new Chekhov. Peter Constantine's historic collection presents 38 new stories and with them a fresh interpretation of the Russian master. In contrast to the brooding representative of a dying century we have seen over and over, here is Chekhov's work from the 1880s, when Chekhov was in his twenties and his writing was sharp, witty and innovative. Many of the stories in The Undiscovered Chekhov reveal Chekhov as a keen modernist. Emphasizing impressions and the juxtaposition of incongruent elements, instead of the straight narrative his readers were used to, these stories upturned many of the assumptions of storytelling of the period. Here is "Sarah Bernhardt Comes to Town," written as a series of telegrams, beginning with "Have been drinking to Sarah's health all week! Enchanting! She actually dies standing up!..." In "Confession...," a thirty-nine year old bachelor recounts some of the fifteen times chance foiled his marriage plans. In "How I Came to be Lawfully Wed," a couple reminisces about the day they vowed to resist their parents' plans that they should marry. And in the more familiarly Chekhovian "Autumn," an alcoholic landowner fallen low and a peasant from his village meet far from home in a sad and haunting reunion in which the action of the story is far less important than the powerful impression it leaves with the reader that each man must live his life and has his reasons.

Contemporary critical opinion and commentary on Anton Chekhov and his works.

? Casts new light on how Chekhovs plays can be interpreted and enacted ? The author explores all the prime components of Chekhovs theatrical technique: text construction, themes and ideas, scenes, dialogue, plot, and interaction between verbal and nonverbal elements ? A rigorous and comprehensive treatment of the many aspects of Chekhovs artistic universe ? All the major works explored One century after the death of Anton Chekhov (18601904), his plays are celebrated throughout the world as a major milestone in the history of theatre and drama. Outside the Russian-speaking community, he is undoubtedly the most widely translated, studied and performed of all Russian writers. His plays are characterised by their evasiveness: tragedy and comedy, realism and naturalism, symbolism and impressionism, as well as other labels of school and genre all fail to account for the uniqueness of Chekhovism, i.e., the essence of his artistic system and world view. Presence through Absence is a bold attempt to map the unique structure and meaning that comprise Chekhovs immensely rich artistic universe. Golombs text is an incursion into Chekhovs vision of unrealised potentials and present absences. His timeless works are shown with rare insight and clarity to have artistic principles and coherence above and beyond the scope of the individual play.