Chekhov: Prose and Drama

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Chekhov addressed a number of fundamental questions: how does our subjective consciousness grasp the world? what certainty do we have about what we hold to be true? how can one be an authentic self? The approach and the stylistic devices he developed so radically departed from the literary norms of his time that critics and readers were often baffled. In his stories and dramas his characters engage but don’t seem to arrive at any significant resolution. And his plays of non-action were among the first to break with the principles of drama set forth since the time of Aristotle. This course will examine what answers Chekhov provided and how he can be considered a Modernist author not only in terms of what he has to say abut also how he says it. The course is taught in Russian