20세기 체호프들: “소비에트 체호프” 세르게이 도블라토프와 “아메리칸 체호프” 레이먼드 카버 비교 연구 (『여행가방』(Чемодан)(1986)과 『대성당』(Cathedral)(1983)을 중심으로)

Abstract

This paper is devoted to a comparative study of short story writers “Soviet Chekhov” Sergei Dovlatov (1941~1990) and “American Chekhov” Raymond Carver (1938~1988), also known as Chekhov to the literary public in the world. First, from the perspective of Anton Chekhov's “free artist,” who influenced Dovlatov’s and Carver’s view of writers, this paper examines the two short stories based on postmodernism: Russian postmodernism and Dovlatov, as well as American minimalism and Carver. The essential poetics that the two writers present are discussed, drawing upon the conflicting elements of the two aspects as said above. This is followed by the analysis of Dovlatov’s and Carver’s representative works, respectively: The Suitcase and Cathedral, and these works are examined in terms of overall composition and unified theme. This paper argues that “Small People Big Feelings” which Anton Chekhov usually contains as one of his most common literary characteristics, the so-called Chekhovian poetics is uttered as an absurdity of the world in Dovlatov’s The Suitcase and as a communication between the individual and the world in Carver's Cathedral. This makes Dovlatov and Carver, who used the modifier “Chekhov”, representative short story writers of the 20th century. It is hoped that in order to expand the whole variety of understanding of the short story writers, it would be necessary to explore Dovlatov’s and Carver’s artistic work better and deeper, examine them as “free artists.