Anthropological Eventfullness in Late Period Short Stories by A. P. Chekhov (A Medical Case and On Business)

The article considers aspects of literary anthropology by A. P. Chekhov, connected with the intermixture of the inner and outer event. The two short stories by A. P. Chekhov under consideration are marked by resemblance in their events and literary anthropology archi­tectonics. Literary anthropology approach presupposes image structure research, as well as the concept of a man in a literary work. The present article regards the image of a man in late Chekhov’s prose within the body-soul-spirit parameters and manifestations of the characters’ emotional and ethical relation to the world, which are connected with them.

The main characters of the short stories A Medical Case and On Business come to com­prehending life as unity of people, as a result of a chance trip. A chance triggers off the pro­cess of ethical revelation for them. Ethics become the main idea for the characters distracted from “the bodily” - perception of the events as a temporary inconvenience. Overcoming the individual makes the characters accept the shared suffering. This moving towards the humane, experienced by the characters, coincides with the logics of the plot and, actually is the plot itself, in contrast to the laconic Chekhov’s narration.