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Distant Freedom
Essay on Chekhov
Brief Description
Chekhov's fiction offers a subtle yet powerful message: another life is possible. Something can always happen to our lives β a possibility that breaks the monotony of servitude and points to a different, more liberated existence. This is the way to approach all these brief tales...
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Distant Freedom
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Description
Chekhov's fiction offers a subtle yet powerful message: another life is possible. Something can always happen to our lives β a possibility that breaks the monotony of servitude and points to a different, more liberated existence.
This is the way to approach all these brief tales of lost lives, nights filled with tears and joy, landscapes, or love, against the cynicism of those who believe that time is destined to replicate the same. In these glimmers, new forms of life arise β noble and sensible shapes that we occasionally perceive and may strive to unfold if we have the courage to do so.
Distant Freedom by Jacques Rancière, using Chekhov's stories as a lens, sees literature not as a source of knowledge but as a catalyst for reshaping the fabric of being. He illuminates the profound capability of literature: positioning us within the landscape of freedom, transparent about the distance it holds from the reality of servitude, yet unwavering in the standards it sets, inviting us to strive towards them.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781509567348
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 26 February 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Polity Press
Contributors:
- Translated by Steven Corcoran
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Weight: 250g
Pages: 120
About the Author
Jacques RanciΓ¨re is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Paris 8: Vincennes β Saint-Denis.
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