Chekhov, intelligentsia, and the ethics of small deeds: a biocritical essay*

Abstract

ABSTRACT This is an inquiry into Anton Chekhov’s embodied existence and the interfaces between his biography and intellectual pursuits. Chekhov’s art serves here as a clue to his affective life and performative contradictions rather than as a self-contained aesthetic output. I argue that Chekhov’s life offers a window onto Russian society and the intelligentsia, a peculiar intellectual stratum to which Chekhov belonged and which he sought to reshape. I start my discussion with a few general notes on biocritique, a branch of pragmatist hermeneutics that provides a theoretical framework for this project. After this, I move on to Chekhov’s childhood and the socio-cultural context that shaped his corporeal agency. Next, I bring into focus Chekhov’s life as an artistic, intellectual, and personal project, focusing on the way he bodied forth his discourse and validated his principles in action. Finally, I identify the junctures where the semiotic chain of Chekhov’s existence showed strains, where his affect, ideas, and actions worked at cross-purpose.