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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: Doctor-Writer 391 and Humanist

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Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: Doctor-Writer 391 and Humanist udc 821.161.1–2.09:177.72 Rajko Igić (Chicago) Anton Pavlovich Chekhov: Doctor-Writer 391 and Humanist Овај чланак је је написан на основу ауторовог излагања на прослави стогодишњице смрти Антона Павловича Чехова (2004), Колби Колеџ, Вотервил, Мејн, САД. У чланку се говори о хуманизму Кључне речи: Чехова као писца–лекара и анализирају неке Chekhov, doctor-writer, Three одлике ликова лекара у његовим делима. Уз Sisters, Sakhalin Island, Dreyfus то, опширно је приказан лик Чебутикина из case, Gorki, Tolstoy,Dante. драме Три сестре. o commemorate Chekhov’s centennial ers, literary and drama critics and reviewers, Tin 2004, the celebrations were organized historians, and other speakers. Film versions from Russia to Germany, France, and England, of Chekhov’s works The Seagull shot( in 1975), all the way to the United States and Canada, Three Sisters (1965), Vanya and Forty Second and other countries. Recently, Colby College Street (1994), and The Cherry Orchard (2002), (Waterville, Maine) organized and hosted as well as the plays The Seagull, an adapta- a festival dedicated to the famous Russian tion of the Light Box Theatre from Manhat- writer. On that occasion the North American tan, Three Sisters, an avant-garde perform- Chekhov Society arranged a one-day confer- ance by Wooster Company from Manhattan, ence titled “Chekhov Centenary Conference,” and I Take Your Hand in Mine…, a one-act for which over 30 papers were submitted by play based on the correspondence between professors of Russian literature, physicians, Chekhov and Olga Knipper, written by Carol and other persons well versed in Chekhov’s Rocamora from New York were shown during life and work. It was followed by a two-day that festival. Such a rich program in America meeting, “Chekhov the Immigrant: Translat- comes as no surprise as Chekhov’s plays are ing a Cultural Icon,” which was attended by frequently performed here; in America only American translators of Chekhov’s works, writ- Shakespeare is performed more often than 2005 2288 IIgic.inddgic.indd 339191 33.11.2005.11.2005 223:34:083:34:08 RAJKO IGIĆ Chekhov. During the festival dedicated to lasted for 20 years. On July 15, 1904, Koch’s Chekhov, the author of this article presented bacillus ended his courageous battle against his paper Could Chekhovian Humanism Help the disease. At that time medicine had only us Today? It was written with the intention of modest treatments for this infectious disease, highlighting some qualities of Chekhov as a such as providing adequate nutrition and doctor-writer as well as a humanist. rest to increase the body’s defenses against the tubercle bacillus. (Streptomycin, the first effective antituberculous medication, was Doctor-Writer discovered during WWII, four decades after Chekhov’s death from the disease that had 392 In 1884 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov gradu- threatened humanity for thousands of years.) ated from medical school and started to Although Chekhov for some time doubted work as a physician in a suburban Moscow the diagnosis, the first haemoptysis that oc- hospital. Eight years later he purchased the curred in 1884 and the many subsequent rundown Melikhovo estate, 70 km south of episodes must have caused him tremendous Moscow, and he and his family lived there anxiety and emotional distress as premoni- for the next seven years. “He pursued his tions of early death. medical identity at the expense of his writing Because he sensed his early death, Chek- career–by providing free care to the country hov, like many other tubercular patients, be- folk near Melikhovo, by donating his services came tremendously active. He was a prolific to the government as a district physician, writer and a dedicated doctor. Chekhov and and by engaging regularly in public health several other doctor-writers, such as two initiatives.” There, Chekhov saw hundreds Serbian classic writers, Laza K. Lazarević of patients, made over 1 000 house calls, (1851–1891) and Jovan Jovanović–Zmaj fought against cholera and illiteracy. While (1833–1904), refuted Tolstoy’s assertion he practiced medicine and public health by that medicine stands in the doctor-writer’s day, he wrote by night masterpiece stories, way. However, some writers – like Bulga- like The Grasshopper and Ward №6, and two kov (1891–1940) – who were educated as plays, Чайка (The Seagull) and Дядя Ваня physicians gave up medicine for writing. (Uncle Vanya). He started his day at five in Chekhov clearly showed that the symbiosis the morning in his office where he exam- of the muse and Æesculapius may increase ined patients and performed minor surgical the writer’s capabilities. His explanation is procedures. Chekhov was an idealistic and as follows: “My medical studies have had hard-working doctor driven by his dedica- a serious effect on my writing. They have tion to serving patients in rural Russia where taught me how to classify my observations corruption and incompetence ruled at all and they have enriched my observations.” At levels. He did not charge his patients, and the height of Chekhov’s early literary suc- he frequently even bought for his patients cess, Alexei Suvorin, his friend and editor needed medications and gave them useful had urged the young writer to give up medi- non-medical advice and financial help. Thus, cine. “Medicine is a waste of your time and the peasants called him врач-чудак, an unu- energy […] become more focused. You’ll sual doctor. never reach your potential unless you con- As a young physician, Chekhov started a centrate on writing.” In response, the writer personal battle with lung tuberculosis which wrote famous passage on integration of the 2005 2288 IIgic.inddgic.indd 339292 33.11.2005.11.2005 223:34:103:34:10 ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV: DOCTOR-WRITER AND HUMANIST arts of medicine and writing. “You advise Characters of Medical Doctors in me not to chase after two hares at once and Chekhov’s Works to forget about practicing medicine. Well, I don’t see what’s so impossible about chasing Although Chekhov’s life span was short, only two hares at once […] Medicine is my law- 44 years, he was in good company. Push- ful wedded wife and literature my mistress. kin, Lermontov, Mayakovsky, Blok, Yesenin, When one gets on my nerves, I spend the Lorca, Vallejo, Byron, Orwell, D. H. Law- night with the other. This may be somewhat rence, and many other writers also lived disorganized, but then again it’s not boring, short lives. And like these masters, he was and anyway, neither looses anything by my so innovative and prolific that his literary duplicity.” output secured him a place among the great- 393 The doctor-writer situation is possibly est men of letters. His works still strongly a source of the apparent contradiction that appeal to readers and theatre lovers all over may describe Chekhov. In his artist role he the world, and they deeply move our moral was so different from his doctor role. As a and psychological selves. Even Chekhov’s doctor, he was a man of action; he founded private life, especially in view of the latest schools and clinics for the peasants in the biographical details, provides an interesting Melikhovo region, donated books to librar- insight into the last years of the 19th century. ies, always was ready to help patients, and Sometimes this insight even inspires other pursued humanitarian causes. However, a works of art like the one written by Carol majority of the protagonists in his stories Rocamora or Aleksandar Novačić. Chekhov and plays ironically show weakness, passiv- was obviously not mistaken when he said to ity, and ineffectiveness. Chekhov gradually his friend Tatiána Shchépkina-Kupérnik that realized that scientific rationalism could not in seven years he would be forgotten, but give us the answers to some very important then he would be rediscovered, and would questions, such as what is the meaning of life, be long read. Like other great men, he left and he explored various individual events us a precious inheritance with a wide gamut, that present man as a victim in an absurd and we are trying to listen to him with apt world. Regarding the ideological shortcom- attention and to interpret his polyphonic ings of the characters in his writings, Chek- message. hov often joked. Thus, in 1888 he wrote to A large number of characters in his short Grigorovich: “I still lack a political, religious stories (Tolstoy compared Chekhov’s sto- and philosophical view. I change it every ries to the impressionists’ paintings) and month, and so I’ll have to limit myself to plays demonstrate that man’s life cannot al- descriptions of how my heroes love, marry, ways follow a preferred path. Besides, unlike give birth, die, and how they speak.” Despite the endless and eternal sky above the vast his self-depreciation, Chekhov unquestion- steppes, which so deeply impressed Chek- ably, thanks to his literary talent and his ap- hov, the writer reminds us that life is too proach to life, improved both the modern short, and the acknowledgment of this fact story and modern play, and it is hard to de- frequently leads us to isolation and disap- cide if he accomplished more as a dramatist pointment. Unfulfilled wishes also have the or story teller. same effect, and that is why we are forced to ask ourselves the big questions: What is the 2005 2288 IIgic.inddgic.indd 339393 33.11.2005.11.2005 223:34:113:34:11 RAJKO IGIĆ meaning of life? How do we manage it? Are even to suffer like Gromov, rather than to re- we the pawns in an absurd world? main in his emotionless state. This obsession Among the characters created in the pe- makes him even more dysfunctional, and, riod of 1881–1900, we encounter a whole ironically, he was trapped by his superiors in array of more than 30 medical doctors.
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