Chekhov in East Asia

In assessing Chekhov’s influence on East Asian literatures, Heekyoung Cho focuses on the first few decades of the twentieth century, when East Asian intellectuals were discovering Russian literature as a resource and guide to their own confrontation with European modernity. In this context, Cho uncovers the strikingly optimistic, life-affirming, and hopeful-though-cautious vision of Chekhov that was filtered into Japan and Korea through the influential exegesis of the anarchocommunist Pyotr Kropotkin.