A. CHEKHOV’S STORY «NIGHTMARE» AS A LITERARY TRANSFORMATION OF BIBLICAL PLOTS

Abstract

The article deals with the features of storyline and characterology in one of representative stories of Chekhov in 1880s called “Nightmare”, which raises the theme of the distressful social situation of the parish clergy. The author analyzes characters of the representatives of the provincial intelligentsia - the priest and the official - through the prism of precedent biblical plots of a story about the prodigal son and about sold birthright, by using the comparison of the behavioral canon contained in the canonical cultural text with the images of characters. The specifics of the functioning of forms of biblical narration is analysed in the Chekhov’s short story, that allows to create intertext connections, similarities, and differences. Such an analysis allows the author to draw the conclusion that the writer’s rethinking biblical stories results in the strengthening of the artistic semantic formation.