This article examines the problem of the mnemonic representation of the estate in the works of A.P. Chekhov and I.A. Bunin. By the late 19th century, the estate lifestyle gradually lost its contemporary relevance and came to be perceived through the prism of memory – its possibilities and limitations interpreted differently by the two writers. Among Chekhov’s texts analyzed are the stories “In the Home District”, “A Visit with Friends”, “Verochka”, “The House with the Mezzanine”, “Ariadne”, “Gooseberries”, “The Bride”, “At the Manor”, and the comedy “The Cherry Orchard”. Employing the terminology proposed by M.V. Stroganov, Chekhov’s “estate” works distinguish between autochthonous characters (native inhabitants of the estate) and transient characters (those visiting the estate in passing). Autochthons are characterized by the reproduction of familiar social practices (automatic memory) coupled with painful nostalgia. Transient characters idealize the estate but swiftly abandon their fantasies when confronted with reality, readily forgetting the estate past. This tense opposition between character types is absent in Bunin’s works (“Late Spring”, “The Life of Arseniev”, “Wanderings”, “Dry Valley”). Here, the subject of memory is an involuntary wanderer – an autochthon who, under new historical conditions, has no prospect of return. Whereas memory can confound Chekhov’s characters, becoming a source of illusions and delusions, for Bunin’s characters it functions as a kind of “anchor point” (P. Nora) within the relentless flow of history. Bunin crosses a historical threshold beyond which mnemonic attachment to the estate is conceived not only as safe but as redemptive. In Chekhov’s prose, this attachment proves as unreliable as a predictive gaze into an uncertain “post-estate” future.
Andrey E. Agratin (Wed,) studied this question.