Lermontov’s Motifs in A. P. Chekhov's Story “The Duel”: The Reader’s Outlook of the Protagonist and the Transformation of Artistic Form

Aim. To identify the specifics of the disclosure of Lermontov’s motifs in A. P. Chekhov’s story “The Duel”, to clarify the specifics of the historical-literary and historical-cultural concept reflected in the characterization of Laevsky as a specific type of “protagonist-reader”, to reveal the significance of the novel “A Hero of Our Time” as a precedent basis for Chekhov’s ideas about the “hero of the time” and the “superfluous man”, taking into account the texts associated with the understanding of Lermontov’s novel in the Russian literature and journalism of the second half of the 19th century.Methodology. The analysis proposed in the article is based on the principles of historical-genetic and comparative-typological examination of the literary work. The characteristics of the main elements of the text of the story “The Duel”, comparable with Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time”, are carried out taking into account the peculiarities of Chekhov’s work with the source, which involves a shift in emphasis both in the characteristics of the characters and in the development of key plot situations, primarily in “The Duel” itself, which made it possible to explicate the motive of the protagonist’s transformation, implicitly embedded in the internal evolution of Lermontov’s Pechorin.Results. The conducted analysis made it possible to clarify the historical-literary and historical-cultural concept of Chekhov, the specificity of his ideas about the social-literary type of the “superfluous man” and the significance for their design of works not only of Lermontov, but also those equal to him – Pushkin, Turgenev; the basis for comparing the story of Chekhov and N. A. Osipovich (Novodvorsky) “Episode from the life of neither peahen nor crow” was established. The specificity of the transformation of Lermontov’s motifs of the image of the “hero of the time” in Chekhov, the construction of the prospect of his development and the possibilities of finding a true place in life was determined.Research implications. The results of the study can be the basis for considering the historical and literary concept of Chekhov as a whole, as well as studying the literary type of the “superfluous man”, the protagonist-reader motif in a literary work, as well as the deep processes of transformation occurring in Russian literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.