Intertext of Renan in Chekhov’s Short Story “The Student”

Abstract

Purpose. The article is devoted to testing the literary intuition of A. P. Chudakov regarding the polyphony of Chekhov’s story “The Student” – the sound of Renan's position and the canonical religious one in it. The study uses intertextual, biographical, and structural analysis methods.

Results. The autobiographical work of Renan tells how twenty-two-year-old Renan, a student of the Paris seminary, while on vacation in his hometown in remote Brittany, decides to leave traditional Christianity. Projections of these biographical details are found in Chekhov’s favorite short story. The article deals with the stylistic and substantive references of the “Gospel of Velikopolsky” with the world-famous “Life of Jesus”. The poetics of ambiguity and understatement in the finale of the story is subordinated to the task of covertly showing the unorthodox way of thinking of the hero of the story. It is quite possible that the story written in 1894 is Chekhov’s requiem for Renan, who died two years earlier.

Conclusion. We believe that paying attention to the personality and work of the French writer, philosopher and historian can be very productive, make a tangible contribution to the study of the artistic world of Chekhov.