Release:
2026. Vol. 12. № 2 (46)About the authors:
Vyacheslav S. Shilov, Postgraduate Student (Russian Literature and Literature of the People of the Russian Federation), Department of Linguistics and Literature, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, RussiaAbstract:
A. P. Chekhov’s dramatic tetralogy of the 1890s and 1900s is one of the most important and internationally recognized achievements of Russian culture, having been the subject of intensive analytical interpretation for over a century, both individually and as a whole. “Uncle Vanya” is one of the least read plays in this series due to its deceptive nature and the mundane visual and eventual sequence. Therefore, an approach to it from a mythopoetic perspective, and in particular an archetypal perspective, helps to reveal the mechanisms underlying this work by A. P. Chekhov and unravel the secrets of its successful and intense stage life. Drawing on the achievements of international and Russian Chekhov studies, the authors of this article offer their own interpretation of this play, capturing the field of the figurative and symbolic space into which the writer, through the functionality of various characters, draws the reader/viewer of his work, enlivening and actualizing their connections with the aesthetic solutions of his predecessors. Moreover, Chekhov himself saw this logic as a strategic objective, focusing from his first steps in art on the ideas of I. S. Turgenev’s article “Hamlet and Don Quixote”.References:
Bolshakova, A. Yu. (2003). Archetype in the theoretical thought of the 20th century. In Theoretical and Literary Results of the 20th Century. Vol. II: Literary Text and Cultural Context (pp. 284–319). Nauka. [In Russian]
Volodina, M. V. (2010). Concepts, Universals, and Stereotypes in Literary Studies. Flinta; Nauka. [In Russian]
Goldenberg, A. Kh. (2013). Archetypes in the Poetics of N. V. Gogol. Flinta; Nauka. [In Russian]
Dimitrov, L. (2007). Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and the “private rules” of dramaturgy. In Chekhoviana. From the 20th to the 21st Century: Results and Expectations (pp. 386–393). Nauka. [In Russian]
Domansky, Yu. V. (2008). Variability of A. P. Chekhov’s Dramaturgy. Liliya Print. [In Russian]
Zingerman, B. I. (1988). Chekhov’s Theatre and Its Global Significance. Nauka. [In Russian]
Clayton, D. (1995). Absence of faith (On the psychological structure, symbolism, and poetics of the play “Uncle Vanya”). In Chekhoviana. Melikhovo Works and Days (pp. 159–168). Nauka. [In Russian]
Kozlova, S. M. (1993). Paradoxes of Drama – The Drama of Paradoxes. Novosibirsk State University Press. [In Russian]
Komarov, S. A. (2002). A. Chekhov — V. Mayakovsky: The Comedy Writer in Dialogue with Russian Culture of the Late 19th – First Third of the 20th Century. Tyumen State University Press. [In Russian]
Komarov, S. A. (2014). Skaftymov’s version of “The Seagull” and “The Cherry Orchard” in the perspective of contemporary Chekhov studies. In The Legacy of A. P. Skaftymov and the Poetics of Chekhov’s Dramaturgy (pp. 117–121). A. A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum. [In Russian]
Kondratyeva, V. V., & Larionova, M. Ch. (2012). Artistic Space in A. P. Chekhov’s Plays of the 1890s–1900s: Mythopoetic Models. Foundation Press. [In Russian]
Leiderman, N. L. (2006). On the study of literary theory in senior school. In Lessons for the Soul: On Teaching Literature at School (pp. 150–161). Tyumen State University Press. [In Russian]
Lukin, V. A. (2005). Literary Text: Foundations of Linguistic Theory. Analytical Minimum. Os-89. [In Russian]
Maslova, E. A. (2014). “Uncle Vanya” and “Three Sisters”: Mythopoetics of A. P. Chekhov’s post-Siberian dramas. In S. A. Komarov (Ed.), From and Within Siberia: A. Chekhov — A. Vampilov — V. Shukshin (pp. 189–215). Ishim State Pedagogical Institute named after P. L. Ershov. [In Russian]
Meletinsky, E. M. (1994). On Literary Archetypes. Russian State University for the Humanities. [In Russian]
Meletinsky, E. M. (Ed.). (2001). Literary Archetypes and Universals. Russian State University for the Humanities. [In Russian]
Tyupa, V. I. (2009а). Analysis of a Literary Text (3rd ed.). Akademiya. [In Russian]
Tyupa, V. I. (2009b). A. P. Chekhov (1860–1904). In V. A. Keldysh (Ed.), History of Russian Literature of the Late 19th – Early 20th Century (Vol. 1, pp. 82–108). Akademiya. [In Russian]
Hansen-Löve, A. (1991). Russian Symbolism: A System of Poetic Motifs. Gnosis. [In Russian]
Khimich, V. V. (2005). On the artistic system of A. P. Chekhov. In N. L. Leiderman (Ed.), Russian Literature of the 20th Century: Patterns of Historical Development. Book 1: New Artistic Strategies (pp. 50–70). Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Education. [In Russian]
Chekhov, A. P. (1974). Complete Works and Letters in 30 Vols. Letters in 12 Vols. Vol. 1. Nauka. [In Russian]
Chekhov, A. P. (1986). Uncle Vanya. In Complete Works and Letters in 30 Vols. Works in 18 Vols. Vol. 13 (pp. 61–116). Nauka. [In Russian]
Shakespeare, W. (1960). Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Translation by M. L. Lozinsky). In W. Shakespeare, Complete Works in 8 Vols. Vol. 6 (pp. 5–157). Iskusstvo. [In Russian]
Jung, C. G. (1997). The Soul and Myth: Six Archetypes. Sovershenstvo; Port-Royal. [In Russian]
Evdokimova, S. (2023). Staging Existence: Chekhov’s Tetralogy. University of Wisconsin Press. https://doi.org/10.1111/russ.12637
Pauls, J. P. (1975). Chekhov’s Names. Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 23(2), 67–73. https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1975.23.2.67
