Metapoetics of the prose of A.P. Chekhov: crisis of the great narratives at the end of XIX - the beginning of the 20th century

The authors of this scientific paper study A.P. Chekhov's metapoetics, they study how the great Russian writer investigates his own works and works of other writers of his epoch. The authorsanalyse epistolary nature of metapoetics, the main attention is paid to an epistemology. It is shown that in the 20th century metadiscourses (novels) become discrete, which is connected with crisis of metaphysical philosophy and ofgreat narratives. A short storyin the first part of the 20th century becomesan operational form of display of reality giving the chance to look at lifeprofoundly, to study a reality fragment deeper, to look at it from the different points of view, dynamically. The short story genre at the same time is defined as the history limited in time and space which finds logic at the level of a microevent unlike macroevents of global history. The analysis of metapoetics of A. P. Chekhov allows to track, what the writerthinks himself about the leading genre in his creativity - the short story.