Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- PART I EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
- PART 2 EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART 3 MID NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART 4 SILVER AGE
- 9 Rise and decline of the “literary” journal: 1880–1917
- 10 The literary content of The World of Art
- 11 Northern Herald: from traditional thick journal to forerunner of the avant-garde
- 12 Chekhov and the journals of his time
- List of titles of journals and almanacs
- Select bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
12 - Chekhov and the journals of his time
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- PART I EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
- PART 2 EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART 3 MID NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART 4 SILVER AGE
- 9 Rise and decline of the “literary” journal: 1880–1917
- 10 The literary content of The World of Art
- 11 Northern Herald: from traditional thick journal to forerunner of the avant-garde
- 12 Chekhov and the journals of his time
- List of titles of journals and almanacs
- Select bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Summary
Throughout his career as a writer, Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) relied primarily on periodicals to reach his readers. In this sense Chekhov's works are typical of his time, for publication in a journal was (and still is) the usual initial mode of contact between a Russian writer and his audience. Most writers of his time carved a clearly defined niche for themselves in the rapidly expanding and diversifying readership of late nineteenthcentury Russia and often consolidated their position by taking on the editorship of a journal. Thus, Nikolai Leikin was editor and publisher of Fragments (Oskolki) as well as a major contributor to it, and Vladimir Korolenko, a writer whose star outshone Chekhov's in the 1880s, became editor of the journal Russian Wealth (Russkoe bogatstvo). Chekhov, however, never formed an exclusive or permanent relationship with any given periodical, though he enjoyed close and lengthy professional associations with several.
Chekhov also appeared in almost every type of periodical then current. Chekhov's lack of “specialization” can be attributed in part to his desire to remain independent of the social and political positions journals customarily espoused. It also reflects the Protean quality of his art, able to adapt to the norms of an entire spectrum of periodicals and of readers, from the unsophisticated and unformed to the most cultured. The journals to which Chekhov contributed thus provide a crosssection of the publishing world and of the readers of Chekhov's day; conversely, they help to account for the diversity and range of his works.
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- Information
- Literary Journals in Imperial Russia , pp. 228 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998