Philosophical and aesthetic significance of biblical allusions in the poetics of A. P. Chekhov’s novella “Three years”

E. I. Kopteva and O. M. Kolesnikov
Additional contact information
E. I. Kopteva: Omsk State Pedagogical University, Omsk, Russian Federation
O. M. Kolesnikov: Omsk State Pedagogical University, Omsk, Russian Federation

Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2023, vol. 17, issue 1, 7-19

Abstract: The article comprehends the functions of biblical quotations in A. P. Chekhov’s novella “Three Years” (1895). The purpose of the analysis is to identify the philosophical and aesthetic significance of biblical allusions in the artistic unity of the novella “Three Years”. The research is based on a systematic approach that allows combining a holistic (immanent) analysis of a work of art with intertextual connections, biblical and non-biblical contexts. The article analyzes in detail direct quotations from the Bible, their role in the plot-compositional unity of A. P. Chekhov’s story “Three Years”, reveals the interaction of biblical allusions with other contexts, including the everyday and moral tradition characteristic of epic forms, various storylines, a system of leitmotivs and symbols (time-space, symbolism of number and name, symbolism of luminaries: moon, sun, etc.). The compositional correspondence of the story to the sonata form is traced, which makes it possible to identify the change of key themes (love and faith), the variability and unpredictability of human feelings. The author builds a parabolic connection between biblical history and contemporary life to clarify the universal laws of being. The complex organization of the plot of the story, the parallelism of life situations and biblical history, the parabolic connection built by the author between the depicted present and the biblical parable time allow us to see how the philosophical and aesthetic principle of the author’s thought brings the private life of the heroes of the story into the universal unity of spiritual searches, doubts, illusions, confides ideas, feelings, events taking place, allowing us to correlate high moral principle and profanity, reinforcing the image of the dual nature of man, the need for a constant choice between compassion and indifference, faith and despondency, remembrance and oblivion.

Keywords: A. P. Chekhov; Three Years; biblical allusions; parabola; holistic (immanent) analysis of a work of art; intertextual links. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journal.omga.su/en/2023/05/04/philosophica ... novella-three-years/ (application/pdf)
https://journal.omga.su/en/2023/05/04/philosophica ... novella-three-years/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aws:omskjl:v:17:y:2023:i:1:p:7-19

DOI: 10.57015/issn1998-5320.2023.17.1.1

Access Statistics for this article

Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities is currently edited by Eremeev Alexander Emmanuilovich

More articles in Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities from Omsk Humanitarian Academy
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Eremeev Alexander Emmanuilovich ().