Abstract:
© Serials Publications. Sociology aspects of culture are one of the most urgent problems of the entire world community, and its solving in the sphere of literature studies is connected with the idea that literature reflects the collective imagination and the collective unconscious of its contemporaries. The purpose of the article is an exploration of new approaches to study the mechanism of formation of fame and literary reputation of the writer. The leading method in that case is reconstruction of historical social psychology. The article uses the methodology of the analysis of the contemporary sociology of literature: it is necessary to base the research not only on the articles by literary critics, but on the sources, which help to understand the mood of the reader, such as archival materials, reader's letters to the writer and articles written by mass reader. Those materials are rare and are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. This article examines the situation of perception of the personality and works of one of the most famous Russian writers A. Chekhov by his contemporaries. This is the beginning of his fame, which was created not by critics, as usually in Russia and in literature as a social institute, but by mass reader. As a result of studying the problem, we can come to the conclusion that readers could see in Chekhov's works their own hopes, despairs, fatigues; they looked at Chekhov as at the expression of their thoughts - more than his contemporary Leo Tolstoy. The article can be useful for further study of that problem and for theatre workers, critics, writers, because it helps to understand at what time rises the interest to Chekhov's works and what type of reader, including other countries, is fond of him.
