Chekhov: Poetics, Hermeneutics, Thematics

J. Douglas clayton, ed. Chekhov: Poetics, Hermeneutics, Thematics. Ottawa, Canada: The Slavic Research Group at the University of Ottawa, 2006. vii, 319 pp.This volume contains eighteen expanded contributions by scholars from both the West and East, most of which were presented at a Chekhov conference held at the University of Ottawa in 2004. Eleven of the articles focus on Chekhov's prose and the remaining seven address his dramas. Nearly all of the contributions offer new perspectives on a host of interrelated topics in Chekhov scholarship such as (mis)communication, point of view, inter-texteality, the absence of an overt message, the role of the comic (particularly in the dramas) among others.Perhaps the most dominant issue in late 20*-century Chekhov scholarship has been the issue of (mis)communication. This is the main focus of Tiupa's article in which he juxtaposes the failed communication among characters with Chekhov's dialogical engagement of the reader. Tiupa juxtaposes the indeterminateness of Chekhov's texts against the poetics of 19ttl-century Realism to reveal Chekhov's shift to the unknown as an invitation to die reader to ponder the vexing questions of life. Miscommunication is also the main topic of Meerzon's article on Three Sisters in which she points out ways in which the comic of the secondary characters often undermines the foregrounded speech of the main characters. She situates this dialogue of the deaf (p. 219) within Meyerhold's notion of the grotesque and the Formalist notion of defamiliarization. The question of communication is also addressed by clayton in his discussion of Steppe. He contrasts the problematic nature of self-expression through speech with self-expression through gesture, silence, and body language and introduces a wonderful example of Emelian singing without words (p. 44).The absence of an overt message in Chekhov's stories is taken up in interesting ways by several of the contributors. The absence of a social message is raised by Markovich, who attributes die shift from first-person to third-person narration in Ward Six to the influence of the Greek menippea (debates in the underworld) and the ocherk of the Natural School. He argues that Chekhov's return to past genres is a way of reasserting the fictional nature of the text. Sherbin in her analysis of Lady with a Lapdog traces the many ways Chekhov repeatedly takes a middle position and interprets this as an expression of the ambiguity and complexity of life that works against a simplistic understanding. The balancing of positive and negative traits is addressed by Jackson in his discussion of Smallfty. He contrasts Ivan's flaws with his sympathetic side and concludes that even in this early comic story Chekhov already introduces a more serious tone, illustrating how things are but without passing moral judgment.The perspective of die experiencing subject is noted by Sobennikov in his examination of Ward Six. …

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