“How did I happen to be here?” Space of lost identity in “Three Sisters” by Anton Chekhov and “The Black Snowstorm” by Anastasia Bukreeva

Abstract

In the article, we make an attempt to study the interaction between the problematics of literary space and character’s identity in a dramaturgical work on the material of the plays “Three Sisters” by Anton Chekhov and “The Black Snowstorm” by Anastasia Bukreeva. The analysis is based on certain statements of chronotope theory developed by Mikhail Bakhtin. The paper considers the motif structure that in a certain way forms the literary space, in particular, the motifs of higher place and lower place, certain characteristics of the organization of space and time, such as isolation, “corpuscularity”, and cyclicity. An analysis is made of the complex interconnection between the place and the way of the characters’ self-determination, which is associated both with the structure of space and with the way the character perceives this space and himself within its boundaries. The nature of dramaturgy defines how the stage and off-stage spaces are organized, and the exploration of the significance of the off-stage chronotope may provide an additional perspective to navigating the character’s inner live determined by his perception of the place of acting. The purpose of this paper is to compare the approaches of the two playwrights to the existential aspects of literary space, as well as the problematics of the connection of a person’s identity with the world in which he finds himself for some reason.