FROM VAUDEVILLE TO NEW DRAMA: STRUCTURAL POETICS OF “THE BEAR” AND “THE PROPOSAL” BY A.P. CHEKHOV

Abstract

The article studies the structural poetics of A.P. Chekhov’s one-act plays (jokes) “The Bear” and “The Proposal”. The author considers these works not merely as examples of the entertaining genre, but as a creative laboratory where the principles of the “New Drama” are formed. The study substantiates that Chekhov transforms the canons of traditional vaudeville by saturating them with psychologism and details of everyday life. The paper conducts a comparative analysis of the two plays, revealing their mirror composition (ascending and descending dynamics) and analyzing the mechanism of “attention displacement,” in which the external conflict is replaced by internal psychological development. The novelty of the approach lies in considering these works as a unified artistic whole. Particular attention is paid to the paradoxical endings and the “inappropriate” reactions of the characters, anticipating absurdist elements in Chekhov’s mature dramaturgy. It is concluded that the poetics of Chekhov’s vaudeville became the foundation for the artistic structure of the playwright’s plays of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.