THE HOUSE WITH THE MEZZANINE: IMPRESSIONISM IN “AN ARTIST’S STORY” AND CHEKHOV’S SHORT STORY

In the context of the ongoing discussion on the issue “Anton Chekhov and impressionism” authors analyze Chekhov’s “The House with the Mezzanine (An Artist’s Story)”, where the protagonist and narrator is an unnamed impressionist painter. The features of Chekhov’s poetics, such as narrative construction, chronotope, literary psychologism, are examined.For the first time a possible relationship between Chekhov’s works and ideas of German psychologist H. Ebbinghaus, who pioneered the experimental study of memory, is noted. The paper substantiates the hypothesis: the similarity of the expressive techniques of Anton Chekhov and impressionism is explained by common sources, such as “spiritual situation” of Fin de siècle, challenges of scientific progress and medical discoveries (incl. psychology of color vision, researches on memory and other higher mental processes). Impressionist painters as a modern cultural-and-psychological type of Fin de si cle became the object of literary portrayal and artistic research by Chekhov. He was interested in impressionistic forms and methods, but at the level of the further rationalization of the Weltbild Chekhov as the writer and physician-philosopher had his own unique way and vision.