20th Century American Literature: A Soviet View [antikvár]

Y. KOVALEV PREFACE* The study of classical and contemporary American literature is a recent but rapidly developing branch of Soviet philology. In January 1975 Moscow witnessed the first all-Union conference on American studies devoted to American literature and journalism. For the first time Soviet scholars and critics in the field of American literature convened to evaluate the results, primary goals and perspectives of their work. It was an inspiring sight. With satisfaction and perhaps some astonishment they realized how numerous were their colleagues and how great the scope of classical and modern American literary studies in the universities and scholarly institutes of the Soviet Union. A characteristic and, as I see it, encouraging feature of the conference was that the bulk of its participants were not venerable professors approaching the end of their academic careers but young graduate students whose scholarly path is only beginning. Evidently a fruitful future awaits American studies in this country. Soviet scholarship in the field of American literature is a relatively young phenomenon. For all practical pur- ) HaAaxejibCTBo «nporpecc», 1976 ) Translation into English. Progress Publishers 1976