Bystrova T.E. Precedent Names in the Works of Anton Chekhov (Based on the Short Stories 'Reporter's Dream', 'Pure Soul (The Story of an Idealist)', 'Jubilee' and 'Good People'

Abstract: The article addresses the problem of precedentiality within the texts of fiction, provides a definition of such concepts as the "common text" and "precedent name". The author of the article analyses different types of precedent names found in Chekhov's short stories  'Reporter's Dream', 'Pure Soul (The Story of an Idealist)', 'Jubilee' and 'Good People'. Special attention is given to biblical names because, according to  many researchers of biblical words, the biblical texts had a special status among precedent phenomena. The Bible relates an infinite variety of interpretations and due to that the Bible can be found everywhere. In the present study the researcher has used the method of stylistic analysis of texts. By analyzing four short stories of Anton Chekhov it is possible to identify several types of precedent names that are most typical for creativity of this writer. The novelty of this research is caused by the fact that precedentiality in the prose of Anton Chekhov was not addressed previously by researchers in the field of language, culture and literature. This author of the article discusses the types of precedent names based on the material of several short stories of Anton Chekhov: this is the name of the Moscow realities of the time (restaurants, hospitals, cemeteries, etc.), the names of classical writers, their works, literary characters' names, last names of famous people , the contemporaries of Anton Chekhov, geographical names, biblical names. Also in the works of Anton Chekhov one can observe a few cases of the names of songs and precedent texts (quotations and quasiquotations) as well as set expressions.

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