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Here is an enlightening, nuanced, and accessible introduction to the life and work of one of the greatest writers of short fiction in history. Anton Chekhov's stories and plays endure, far beyond the Russian context, as outstanding modern literary models. In a brief, remarkable life, Chekhov rose from lower-class, provincial roots to become a physician, leading writer, and philanthropist, all in the face of a progressive fatal disease. In this biography, Michael C. Finke analyzes Chekhov's major stories, plays, and nonfiction in the context of his life, both fleshing out the key features of Chekhov's poetics of prose and drama and revealing key continuities across genres, as well as between his lesser-studied early writings and the later works.

Imperial Russia's large wolf populations were demonized, persecuted, tormented, and sometimes admired. That Savage Gaze explores the significance of wolves in pre-revolutionary Russia utilizing the perspectives of cultural studies, ecocriticism, and human-animal studies.

With a focus on the canonical institutions of Shakespeare and Chekhov, John Tulloch brings together for the first time new concepts of \"the theatrical event\" with live audience analysis. Using mainstream theatre productions from across the globe that were highly successful according to both critics and audiences, this book of case studies-ethnographies of production and reception-offers a combined cultural and media studies approach to analyzing theatre history, production, and audience. Tulloch positions these concepts and methodologies within a broader current theatrical debate between postmodernity and risk modernity. He also describes the continuing history of Shakespeare and Chekhov as a series of stories \"currently and locally told\" in the context of a blurring of academic genres that frames the two writers. Drawn from research conducted over nearly a decade in Australia, Britain, and the U.S.,Shakespeare and Chekhov in Production and Receptionwill be of interest to students and scholars of theatre studies, media studies, and audience research.

The Cherry Orchard was written by Chekhov as a comedy, but directed by Stanislavski as a tragedy on its premier. The play has maintained the dual nature of these intentions ever since. An aristocratic family return to their estate on the eve of auction. Though alternatives present themselves, the family is apathetic and their property is sold. The play addresses the vast changes to the Russian social casts at the time, and the general cultural futility experienced by the aristocracy and bourgeoisie in their shifting roles.

Performing Chekhov is a unique guide to Chekhov's plays in performance. It will be indispensable to students, teachers and theatre practitioners interested not only in Chekhov but in the history of the modern stage.

A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre provides essential primary sources which document one of the key movements in modern theatre. Christopher Innes has selected three writers to exemplify the movement, and six plays in particular: Henrik Ibsen - A Dolls House and Hedda Gabler Anton Chekhov - The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard George Bernard Shaw - Mrs Warren's Profession and Heartbreak House. Innes' introduction provides an overview of naturalist theatre. Key themes include: the representation of women, significant contemporary issues and the links between theory, play writing and stage practice. The primary sources explore many aspects of naturalism, giving information on: the playwrights' intentions when writing plays contemporary reviews literary criticism political and social background production notes from early performances of the plays.

One century after the death of Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), his plays are celebrated throughout the world as a major milestone in the history of theater and drama. Outside the Russian-speaking community, he is undoubtedly the most widely translated, studied, and performed of all Russian writers. His plays are characterized by their evasiveness: tragedy and comedy, realism and naturalism, symbolism and impressionism, as well as other labels of school and genre, all of which fail to account for the uniqueness of his artistic system and worldview. Presence Through Absence is a bold attempt to map the unique structure and meaning that comprise Chekhov's immensely rich artistic universe. Harai Golomb explores all the prime components of Chekhov's theatrical technique: text construction, themes and ideas, scenes, dialogue, plot, and interaction between verbal and nonverbal elements. His timeless works are shown with rare insight and clarity to have artistic principles and coherence above and beyond the scope of the individual play.

This book considers the hundred years of re-writes of Anton Chekhov's work, presenting a wide geographical landscape of Chekhovian influences in drama. The volume examines the elusive quality of Chekhov's dramatic universe as an intricate mechanism, an engine in which his enigmatic characters exist as the dramatic and psychological ciphers we have been de-coding for a century, and continue to do so. Examining the practice and the theory of dramatic adaptation both as intermedial transformation (from page to stage) and as intramedial mutation, from page to page, the book presents adaptation as the emerging genre of drama, theatre, and film. This trend marks the performative and social practices of the new millennium, highlighting our epoch's need to engage with the history of dramatic forms and their evolution. The collection demonstrates that adaptation as the practice of transformation and as a re-thinking of habitual dramatic norms and genre definitions leads to the rejuvenation of existing dramatic and performative standards, pioneering the creation of new traditions and expectations. As the major mode of the storytelling imagination, adaptation can build upon and drive the audience's horizons of expectations in theatre aesthetics. Hence, this volume investigates the original and transformative knowledge that the story of Chekhov's drama in mutations offers to scholars of drama and performance, to students of modern literatures and cultures, and to theatre practitioners worldwide.

Chekhov is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential literary figures of modern times. Russia's preeminent playwright, he played a significant role in revolutionizing the modern theatre. His impact on prose fiction writing is incalculable: he helped define the modern short story. Beginning with an engaging account of Chekhov's life and cultural context in nineteenth-century Russia, this book introduces the reader to this fascinating and complex personality. Unlike much criticism of Chekhov, it includes detailed discussions of both his fiction and his plays. The Introduction traces his concise, impressionistic prose style from early comic sketches to mature works such as 'Ward No. 6' and 'In the Ravine'. Examining Chekhov's development as a dramatist, the book considers his one-act vaudevilles and early works, while providing a detailed, act-by-act analysis of the masterpieces on which his reputation rests: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.