The overlooked traits of the ‘new drama’. The literary fate of S. Naydyonov

Abstract

The article seeks to revive interest in the legacy of the Silver Age playwright S. Naydyonov. Upon analysis of his plays, the authors prove that Naydyonov tried to distance himself from his literary reputation as A. Ostrovsky’s successor, bestowed on him by critics after the triumph of his first play. In his subsequent work, the dramatist searched for a new type of hero, using the transformation of space to give an insight into the psychology of his characters, and proposed conflict realization methods that relied on enhanced symbolism of objects rather than direct clashes of the opposing parties. The article shows that his experiments largely corresponded to the artistic intentions of the ‘new drama.’ Therefore, the present study of Naydyonov’s plays written in the early 1900s demonstrates that, while A. Chekhov and L. Andreev remain the undisputed pioneers of the ‘new drama’ aesthetics in Russia, its artistic paradigm was frequently adopted by second-tier writers such as Naydyonov, often without the pioneers’ direct influence.