‘Shestovizing’ Chekhov: Facts, Conjecture and Existential Philosophy

Objectivity pertains to eternity; however, extreme subjectivity defines living beings. As in one of Bidstrup's caricatures, a new hat that has been sat on and crumpled provokes laughter in a sanguine person, and moves a melancholic person to tears. The same blow sounds sharp on glass and muffled on wood, and upon hearing the sound one is able to guess the nature of the material that absorbed the shock. In exactly the same indirect manner, the outside world manifests itself more expressively through indirect rather than direct speech. From this perspective, Lev Shestov's essay on Chekhov, bearing the intriguing title, ‘Creation from Nothing’, is in my view primarily (although not exclusively) a testimony to Shestov himself.

The principal idea of Shestov's essay, which provocatively conceals his more authentic insights into Chekhov's work, is delivered in the opening pages, in Shestov's laconic style: ‘Chekhov was the poet of hopelessness. Stubbornly, despondently, monotonously for almost 25 years, over the whole course of his literary production, Chekhov did only one thing: in one way or another he killed human hope. In my opinion, this is the essence of his creative activity'. Throughout his essay, Shestov circles like a vulture gathering strength over the theme of hopelessness.