Two centuries of the Russian classics Two centuries of the Russian classics 2686-7494 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-1-292-321 Research Article Articles 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 Arsentieva Natalia N. red@rusklassika.ru 25 03 2026 8 1 292 321 A. P. Chekhov Martin Recuerda estate text female destiny poetics of drama interliterary connections symbolism of time creativity salvation philosophy of existence Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 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. 1. Golovchiner, V. E. “ʽTri sestry’ A. P. Chekhova v kontekste iskanii dramy nachala XX veka” [“ʽThree Sisters’ by A. P. Chekhov in the Context of the Search for Drama in the Early 20th Century”]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta, no. 8 (98), 2010, pp. 5–10. (In Russ.) 2. Leng, R. D. Raskolotoe “Ya” [The Split Self]. St. Petersburg, White Rabbit Publ., 1995. 350 p. (In Russ.) 3. Polonskii, V. V. Mifopoetika i dinamika zhanra v russkoi literature kontsa XIX – nachala XX veka [Mythopoetics and the Dynamics of Genre in Russian Literature of the Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2008. 285 p. (In Russ.) 4. Marsh, Cynthia. “Masha’s Lines from Pushkin: Intertextuality and Subjectivity in Chekhov’s Three Sisters.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 101, no. 2, 2006, pp. 440–453. https://doi.org/10.2307/20467132 (In English) 5. Morales, Antonio. “Estudio preliminar.” Recuerda, J. Martín. Las Conversiones y Las ilusiones de las hermanas viajeras, con estudio preliminar de Antonio Morales. Murcia, Ed. Godoy, 1981, pp. 9–70. (In Spanish) 6. Trepanier, Lee. “Brutality, Vulgarity, and Evil in Chekhov’s Three Sisters.” Perspectives on Political Science, vol. 39, no. 3, 2010, pp. 146–152. https://doi.org/10.1080/10457097.2010.481964 (In English) 7. Turner. C. J. G. “Time in Chekhov’s Tri Sestry.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 66, no. 2, 1971, pp. 309–321. https://doi.org/10.2307/3724029 (In English) 8. Vaquero Cid, Benigno. Teatro de Martín Recuerda. Granada, 1965. (In Spanish)