Attachments:
  Fr |
- 12
- Frédéric-Gaël Theuriau
- University of Tours
- MENTAL AND BEHAVIOURAL DISORDERS IN “THE PROPOSAL” BY ANTON CHEKHOV
- Theuriau F.-G. Mental and behavioural disorders in “The Proposal” by Anton Chekhov. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2022, vol. 28, № 3, pp. 97–102 (In French). https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2022-28-3-97-102
- DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2022-28-3-97-102
- УДК:
821.161.1.09’’19’’
- EDN:
NFDLBW
- Publish date:
2022-08-10
- Annotation:
Based on the comparative approach, narrative medicine and pathology diagnostics, the article examines the personal psychological deviations of the characters in Anton Chekhov. The article reveals the main stages in the diagnosis and the interpretation of hypochondria, melancholy, timidity from antiquity, where pathological features of personality and types of temperament were associated with the balance of the elements and basic fluids in the human body, to the Enlightenment and the modernity, where personal pathologies were dictated by mental predisposition and social environment. Molière’s main goal is to identify the type of “imaginary patient” as an expression of hypochondria symptom and to ridicule the type of a quack doctor, while for Chekhov («Proposal»), the main character’s hypochondria is complicated by timidity and procrastination, designed to enhance the comic effect of the described situation. This allows us to consider in a new way the difference between the typological approach to the human being as a combination of passions in the classical comedy and in the mature realism of the 19th century. The conclusion is made about the importance of a literary typological study of psychological deviations and pathologies in the history of human civilisation and intellectual culture.
- Keywords:
comedy, hypochondria, medicine, Molière, psychiatry, Anton Chekhov’s theatre, shyness
- Literature list:
Mol'er. Bol'nym byt' dumaiushchii [The Imaginary Invalid]. St. Petersburg, 1743. (In Russ.)
Furetière A. Dictionnaire universel. T. II. La Haye et Rotterdam, Arnout & Reinier Leers, 1690.
Le Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise. T. II. Paris, Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1694.
Molière. Le Malade imaginaire. Paris, Ballard, 1673.
Patouillet J. Molière et se fortune en Russie. Revue des études slaves. T. 2, fascicule 3–4, 1922.
Postel J. Dictionnaire de psychiatrie et de psychopathologie clinique. Paris, Larousse, 1998.
Rey A. Dictionnaire historique de la langue française. Paris, Le Robert, 2016, p. 2442.
Rousseau J.-J. Œuvres complètes. T. I. Les Confessions. Paris, Gallimard, La Pléiade, 1959.
Schützenberger A.A. Vocabulaire de base des sciences humaines: Formation, psychothérapie, psychanalyse, psychiatrie, psychologie médicale, thérapie familiale. Paris, Desclée De Brouwer, 1982.
Sydenham Th. Dissertatio de variolis et morbo hysterico et hypochondriaco. Londres, 1682.
Tchékhov A. Œuvres. La Demande en mariage, traduction par Elsa Triolet. T. I. Paris, Gallimard, La Pléiade, 1967.
Theuriau F.-G. La question sociale dans «Une Demande» d’Anton Tchékhov. Moscou, Studia litterarum, Institut A.M. Gorky de la Littérature Mondiale de l’Académie de Sciences de Russie, 2019 (septembre), T. 4, № 3.
- Author's info:
Frédéric-Gaël Theuriau, PhD in French language & literature at the University of Tours, Professor, researcher, literary critic, essayist, Tours, France, fredericgaeltheuriau@orange.fr
