CHEKHOV’S BASICS OF VICTOR PETROV-DOMONTOVYCH’S NOVEL “WITHOUT FOUNDATION”

Abstract

The goal of the study is to analyze the novel «Without Foundation» through the prism of A. Chekhov’s works, in particular, the play “The Cherry Orchard”.

Research methods are determined by the goal. The method of intertextual analysis is used to identify various models and forms of literary dialogue in the text. Comparative and typological, structural and mythopoetic methods are used in contextual analysis and interpretation of the novel to clarify the author’s artistic concept.

Results. It is indicated that the play by A. Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard” from the moment of its appearance, due to the scale of artistic generalization of the loss of home and motherland, began to play the role of a pretext to all artistic and philosophical searches of the twentieth century to comprehend the existential problem of baselessness, loss of personal in the period of historical catastrophes. Meanwhile, the review of literary studies indicates the absence of the special scientific study of cultural and artistic dialogue between V. Petrov-Domontovych and A. Chekhov, which narrows the intellectual horizons of the novel. It is not easy to recognize and distinguish Chekhov’s images and reminiscences in the general cultural context of the novel. The presence of A. Chekhov in the artistic world of Petrov-Domontovych is not a direct, but an indirect dialogue, when the consonance of aesthetic intentions is manifested in identical situations, conflicts, characters of heroes and is conditioned, among other things, by the cultural context, the cultural thesaurus. In the study, through the prism of Chekhov’s works, such motives as home, garden, steppe, alms, etc. are interpreted. It turns out that the main appeal to A. Chekhov is an ephrasis of Linnik’s painting with the eloquent title “The City is Cut”, which directly echoes the finale of “The Cherry Orchard”. For the main character of the novel, the canvas is a text, sounds, and its main sound, which, like A. Chekhov’s, breaks the silence, is the knocking of the ax on the tree. The Varangian Church, symbolizing the eternal, was under the threat of the destruction of the present, as in its time the poetic Chekhov’s garden.

Conclusions. Domontovych-critic was inclined towards a combined concept of modern literature, which he proposed to call “schematic synthesis”. With his own novel “Without Foundation” Domontovych-writer demonstrated a model of a new Ukrainian novel, which, depicting his own, was not intended for “home use”, but thanks to intertextual poetics organically fit into the European literary context.