In the canyon

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In der Schlucht ( Russian В овраге , W owrage ) is a short story by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov , which was written in Yalta in 1899 and was published in the January 1900 issue of the St. Petersburg magazine Schisn . The translation into German by W. Czumikow and M. Budimir brought Eugen Diederichs onto the market in 1904. The story was published in 1901 in the weekly newspaper Die Neue Zeit . Reinhold Trautmann's translation was published in 1947 .

Anton Chekhov

The action begins around 1889.

content

The 56-year-old grocer Grigory Petrovich Zybukin from Jepifan had settled down in the village Uklejewo, the site of action for years. The latter is hidden in a swampy gorge in the area around Melichowo . Near the village are a railway station and a calico print shop . The widower Grigori has two sons. After the deaf merchant Stepan, the younger of the two sons, married the beautiful, slim, enterprising Xenia Abramovna - called Aksinja - Grigori married the stately Varvara Nikolaevna from the area around Uklejewo. While Stepan does not have what it takes to be a businessman, his wife has considerable business success as a businessman; commands the workers in their brick factory in neighboring Butjokino.

The older son Anissim Zybukin, who works as a detective for the criminal police in the city, is married at the age of 28 to the half-child, penniless, intimidated day laborer Lipa from the village of Torgujewo. There is singing and dancing at the wedding. Anissim gives every musician and singer half a ruble. After the wedding, Anissim goes back to town and leaves Lipa with his family. The young woman, born a beggar, is afraid of Aksinja.

Anissim was imprisoned for counterfeiting and exiled to Siberia as a slave laborer for six years . The policeman gave away counterfeit money at his wedding. Old Grigori can't get over the son's misconduct. He no longer knows which piece of his cash is false and which is real. Lipa gives birth to a son: Nikifor. The happy mother sings to the child: "You will grow sooo big ... and we will go on daily wages together!" On Warwara's advice, Grigori bequeathed Nikifor Butjokino to his only grandson. The childless Aksinja, who is still very successful in having bricks burned there, is furious and pours boiling water over the infant Nikifor with a ladle. The little child dies painfully in the hospital the same day.

Three years after Nikofor's death: Lipa has long since been driven out by the landlady Aksinja and makes ends meet as a day laborer. On the way home from work, Lipa meets the run-down, half-starved father-in-law. The young woman gives him a piece of pate with grits. Grigori consumes it with tears.

shape

Social criticism

There is indirect criticism. The restrained voice can only be heard if you listen a little more closely: for example, shortly before Zybukin marries his son Anissim, two seamstresses sew the clothes for Varvara and Aksinja. The two dressmakers cry as they hold their wages in their hands: stearin candles and sardines - goods they don't need. At the wedding, the criticism becomes much more direct. Coming into the house: the clergy, the employees of the factory with their wives, the traders and taverns, the district elder and the district clerk. The villagers are not entertained. They only sell mouth monkeys on Zybukin's farm. One of the spectators yells at the celebrants: "You sucked us, you dogs, and there is no one to beat you!" When Varvara is dancing at the wedding and Grigori is stamping his heels, those onlookers are from the village enthusiastic and forgive the Zybukins for a moment their wealth and its acquisition.

atonement

Chekhov chooses and uses the absence of any atonement as a formal element when he exposes Russian industrialists who, in their excessive greed, go over corpses, as it were. Aksinja, who did kill Nikifor, gets away with no prosecution, let alone punishment, and ultimately triumphs. Grigori and Varvara only regret that Lipa did not understand how to protect their own little son. Nobody says a single word about Aksinja's guilt, let alone blame her. Aksinja usurps control of the Zybukin house and lets her father-in-law go to waste.

moral

Varvara acts as the only moral authority in the narrative. She gives to the poor and complains: "We cheat people too much."

tragedy

The tragic figure in the story is old Grigori. If he appears initially and for long periods of time as the master of the Zybukin family, his daughter-in-law Aksinja has finally made him a tramp.

filming

reception

  • Nabokov recognizes Lipa as the “main character of the narrative”, admires several “strokes of genius” Chekhov in his quote-riddled review, and calls “Grigori's whole family a masquerade of deception”. By masquerade, Nabokov means
    • the flagship grocery store for liquor sales,
    • behind Aksinja's cheerfulness there is deceit and adultery,
    • Chekhov reveals drop by drop Anissim's work as a detective in the city and
    • Varvara appears as a "hollow bowl of superficial friendliness".
  • December 2004 Hans-Georg Lützenkirchen in literaturkritik.de: "Truths of life" from the province

German-language editions

First editions

  • In the canyon . The New Era, 1901
  • In the canyon . In Anton Chekhov: Collected Works. Vol. 5. Translator W. Czumikow u. M. Budimir, Diederichs, Jena 1904

expenditure

  • In the canyon . Dr. Riederer-Verlag, Stuttgart around 1950. Volume 54 of the Perlenkette series . 71 pages

Used edition

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bibliographic entry on In der Schlucht
  2. ↑ Düwel in the follow-up to the edition used, pp. 600–602
  3. ↑ Russian Уклеево
  4. ↑ Düwel quotes Chekhov in the follow-up to the edition used, p. 601, 7th Zvo
  5. ↑ Russian Колечко золотое, букет из алых роз
  6. ↑ Russian Долинин, Дмитрий Алексеевич
  7. ↑ Nabokov, pp. 351-372
  8. ^ Nabokov, p. 354, 17. Zvo
  9. ↑ Nabokov, p. 352, 1. Zvu
  10. ↑ Nabokov, p. 351, 3rd Zvu
  11. ↑ Nabokov, p. 351, 3rd Zvu
  12. ^ Nabokov, p. 353, 17. Zvo
  13. ↑ Nabokov, p. 353, 12. Zvu
  14. ^ Nabokov, p. 354, 10th Zvu