Chekhov and the time recaptured

• Grant number: 14/21718-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Barretto Gomide
• Grantee: Rodrigo Alves Do Nascimento
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/04380-3 - Chekhov and time recaptured, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) has been considered by many an unclassifiable writer. The complexity of his work might enlighten this problem. If on one hand the dramatic procedures of his plays still believed that drama could be a form to talk about the anxieties of one's time; on the other his procedures also undermined some central characteristics of this genre (i.e. drama), with emphasis to the necessity to represent exceptional human action and characters and to develop it throughout the play through dramatic action and dialogues. Starting with this apparent contradiction in Chekov's work, the main goal of this project is to think time in Chekov's dramaturgy in order to understand the particular place this author has in the western canon. The project will approach this issue in two different ways. First I will inquire how the idea of present is negated in Chekov's plays. This can be seen in his disbelief in the efficiency of dialogues as central for the action, as well as in his portrayal of characters as divided between past and future. Secondly, I will explore how Chekhov's dramaturgy believes in the negation of the present as a central aspect of its own form and as a way to guarantee its historical actuality and relevance as an artwork. Or, on a Benjaminian sense, how the work creates its own mechanisms of presentness that allows it the access of the readers' and viewers' own present. Based on Agamben, I believe that the dissociation and the distancing of Chekhov's characters vis-à-vis their own present is what keeps his works still relevant to our own present. In order to support my theoretical argument, I will close read two of the author's best known plays The Seagul and Three Sisters and analyze the proposed solutions and readings offered by different theater groups for the staging of the plays. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

NASCIMENTO, Rodrigo Alves Do. Anton Chekhov: drama, time, and crisis. 2019. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.