person

Tatyana Repina

Repina

also: Репина, Татьяну, Tatyana

FICTIONAL CHARACTER -- the title role of Alexei Suvorin's play "Tatyana Repina", referred to in this letter both by surname ("Repina") and by first name ("Tatyana"). Nikulina had hoped to play this part but is cast as Kokoshkina instead; per Nikulina's account no one but her can play it, Fedotova having declined and Ermolova being unavailable. NON-CONFLATION FLAG: distinct from (an unrelated fictional character in a different, untitled Suvorin story draft discussed in) and from the real painter Ilya Repin; also distinct from Pushkin's Tatyana and from Chekhov's own later same-titled one-act play.

Reading notes

To A. S. Suvorin, 17 December 1888. Moscow. §3 "And here I thought I was to play Repina."
NEW ENTITY -- the title role of Suvorin's "Tatyana Repina", named here by surname; see \S5 where the same character is named by first name, "Tatyana." Distinct from (an unrelated fictional character in a different, untitled Suvorin story draft discussed in) and from the real painter Ilya Repin.
To A. S. Suvorin, 17 December 1888. Moscow. §5 By her account, there is no one but her to play Tatyana.
"Tatyana" here is the same title character named "Repina" at \S3, referred to by first name; see that note for the non-conflation flag with Ivanov and with the unrelated story character. This is also distinct from the Tatyana of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" invoked in's letter -- a wholly separate reference despite the shared name, already flagged at's crossrefs.
To A. S. Suvorin, 23 December 1888. Moscow. §6 Tatyana shouldn't use the word "cursed" so often: the cursed offender, the cursed Jew...
SENSITIVITY (period-typical ethnic slur, instance 1 of 2) -- the source reads "жид проклятый" ("cursed Jew," using the pejorative "жид" rather than the neutral "еврей"), placed in the mouth of the FICTIONAL title character of Suvorin's play, not spoken by Chekhov in his own voice. Translated faithfully rather than softened, consistent with this corpus's established policy of flagging rather than euphemizing period-typical ethnic language (compare's headnote discussion of the same term). See the \S10 note below for the second, real-world instance of the same slur root in this letter, applied to an actress's casting suitability rather than to play dialogue -- the two should be read together but not conflated: one is fictional dialogue Chekhov is critiquing on dramaturgical grounds, the other is Chekhov relaying a real casting remark.
To A. S. Suvorin, 8 February 1889. Moscow. §4 Why did you take Repin "ready-made"?
Refers to Suvorin's own title character Tatyana Repina, whom Chekhov cites as a parallel case of a hero taken over already formed; this fictional character is distinct from the historical actress Praskovya Repina after whom Suvorin named her (see the note at \S7-8 below).
To A. S. Suvorin, 8 February 1889. Moscow. §8 Tanya Repina (* genitive case.)
The fictional title character of Suvorin's play, NOT the historical actress Praskovya Repina the character is named after -- the woman is begging to see the character performed, not the historical Repina in person. The parenthetical asterisked note '(* genitive case.)' is an editorial gloss preserved from the source, marking that the Russian name 'Татьяну Репина' appears in an irregular genitive-case form (an error or archaism in the manuscript); reproduced literally rather than silently normalized or omitted.