Two centuries of the Russian classics

2686-7494

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-1-132-157

Research Article

Articles

Spatial and Mental Correlates of Prison in A. P. Chekhov’s “Sakhalin Island” and Stories: Fictional and Documentary Discourses

Odesskaya

Margarita M.

red@rusklassika.ru

25 03 2026

8 1 132 157

Chekhov “Sakhalin Island ” prison space mental correlate metaphysical discourse documentary fiction

2026

Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island” is a significant milestone in the writer’s work, not only because it raises the social and humanitarian problems of the time, but also because, on the one hand, it accumulates themes and artistic strategies of pre-Sakhalin prose, and on the other hand, reflects new techniques of poetics, which were developed and deepened under the impression of what they saw on the “island of suffering.” The subject of this article is the dual nature of the prison chronotope in Chekhov’s artistic and documentary discourses. In this work, the multi-genre work “Sakhalin Island” is considered in unity with Chekhov’s fiction. In the story “Dreams” (1886), the artistic depiction of a prison and a prisoner anticipates the documentary description in the book “Sakhalin Island.” In the story “Gusev” (1890), written under the impression of what he saw on a hard labor island, the factuality and journalistic axiology inherent in the essay narrative are deepened by metaphysical symbolism. The double optics of Chekhov the essayist and Chekhov the artist determine the stylistic heterogeneity of the book “Sakhalin Island” and the interference of artistic and journalistic discourses in his work.

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