The World of the Estate as a Philosophical Space of Drama: “Three Sisters” by A. P. Chekhov and “Dreams of the Traveling Sisters” by Martín Recuerda

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Arsentieva, N. N. “The World of the Estate as a Philosophical Space of Drama: ʽThree Sisters’ by A. P. Chekhov and ʽDreams of the Traveling Sisters’ by Martín Recuerda.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 8, no. 1, 2026, pp. 292–321. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-1-292-321
Abstract:
This article offers a comparative analysis of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1900) and José Martín Recuerda’s Dreams of the Traveling Sisters (1955), examining them as a dialogue between 20th-century Russian and Spanish drama. The article explores the mechanisms of artistic appropriation of Chekhov’s model in the Spanish context and demonstrates how it becomes a form of expression for women’s worldviews and experiences of internal bondage. Both plays share motifs of longing for the unfulfilled, confined spaces, and lost illusions, yet the similarities extend beyond thematic themes: they manifest themselves in the very structure of the drama, where external action gives way to the inner movement of consciousness. Recuerda creatively develops Chekhov’s poetics of the “theater of silence,” transforming it into a means of female self-expression, where dream and play become forms of resistance to spiritual stagnation. Through the symbolism of time and the technique of “theater within a theater,” the Spanish author explores the cyclical nature and finiteness of human life. In both works, the home becomes a space of suffering and spiritual rebirth, and art becomes a way of preserving dignity and inner freedom.
Keywords: A. P. Chekhov, Martin Recuerda, estate text, female destiny, poetics of drama, interliterary connections, symbolism of time, creativity, salvation, philosophy of existence
Author: Natalia N. Arsentieva
Information about the author:
Natalia N. Arsentieva, DSc in Philology, Professor, University of Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, Calle Real de Cartuja, 36–38, 18071 Granada, Spain.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5616-1589

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received: September 11, 2025
Approved after reviewing: November 27, 2025
Published: March 25, 2026
Issue: 2026 Volume 8 No. 1
Pages: 292-321
DOI: Visit Website
EDN:
https://elibrary.ru/UAYJVU
UDK: 821.161.1.09"19/20"; 821.134.2.0
Publication Type: Research Article

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