Aesthetic and Historical Contours of Russian Manor as a Genre

Abstract

The development of the Russian manor has been shown to mirror the history of the Russian culture, national history and heritage, as well as the Russian mentality and ancestral memory. This study emphasizes that its history records “rigidly observed structures of power”. Chekov’s dacha in Melihovo provides an example of the perceived change from dacha to manor. Like a dacha, the dwelling was located in the village, it had no front yard, nor was it fenced from the street. Yet the Chekov family perceived it as a manor and used it as a theatre for their own nobility. Bakhtin is absolutey right in supporting that the main genre-forming factor is historical time with its social and ideological distinctions.