The ontological and aesthetic status of a character in A.P. Chekhov’s works
The main object of the given research is a character in Chekhov's works, their ontological and aesthetic status. We proceed from the assumption that the methodology of literary analysis presupposes, as the main prerequisite of its effectiveness, reliance on the aesthetic conception of the world and man in the works of the writer, which constitutes the semantic center of their artistic and aesthetic system. The absence of such a concept in contemporary Chekhovian studies is, in our opinion, a reason for the lack of clarity regarding the specifics of Chekhov's realism and its difference from the classical realism. These problems are covered in the theoretical part of the article. The specificity of Chekhov's realism lies in the fact that the artistic world of Chekhov's is a referent of reality without intermediaries in the form of literary traditions (literary trends). Chekhov's world is the world of primary essences: the ontological status of a real single person comprises physical, mental and intellectual abilities, a certain combination of which determines the vital status of the individual, the subject of personal being - existence - the universal modus of human existence. The reader of Chekhov's works must perceive their inner world as reality, identifying him/herself with Chekhov's characters. At the primary level of being, the connection between people is made directly, at the emotional level, the primary level of human consciousness. The main difficulty in perceiving Chekhov's works lies in the fact that Chekhov's artistic world is only implicitly present there, while the “literary” world, in which the characters' behavior is primarily determined by their socio-professional status, is shown explicitly. Thus, an interference of different artistic languages occurs in the text. This statement is illustrated in the article by the interpretation of the novella “Student”. The article examines the theme of “man” and “nature” in terms of existence; the theme of “the history of the human soul” is interpreted from the position of the ironic status of Chekhov's characters. The main part of the article finishes up with examining the problem of the internal connection between Chekhov's characters. In the conclusion, the emergence of Chekhov's postclassical realism in the Russian literature of the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is seen as a logical part of the development of literary process.