The article is devoted to the short story of Anton P. Chekhov «Fear». Chekhov himself considers his story as a «Сhristmas story» (it was published on December, 25, 1892 in «Novoe Vremya» newspaper). It is a bit paradoxical because the narration covers summer time. That seems to extremely distance the story from the traditional Christmas canon (Christmas is celebrated in winter: Christmastide, Christmas, New Year). Yet, by naming his story a Сhristmas one Chekhov alluded to the central motive of fear so typical of a Сhristmas story. The author of the article shows how Chekhov interprets the motive of fear in his story. According to Chekhov the motive of fear is connected not with the sphere of unusual, wonderful, unreal (as it was traditionally done before in the genre of Christmas story) but with the usual events of the real life. Thus, the interpretation of fear was transferred to another semantic field while the connection with the tradition emphasized the innovative nature of Chekhov‘s story. Chekhov creates the new concept in fiction that was absolutely new for the reader who was used to the traditional Сhristmas stories published in the newspapers. The author of the article also analyzes the motive of fear in the works of Ivan S. Turgenev and S. Kjerkegor. These parallels reveal Chekhov‘s understanding of «fear» as well.
Reference to article:
Kapustin N. V. Chekhov’s story “Fear”: genre metamorphoses and obertones of meaning // Ivanovo State University Bulletin. Series «The Humanities». 2021. No.2. P. 11-17.