Kozlova K. Feminist literary criticism in the USA: problems of genesis and formation (comparative aspect).

The objects are works by American and French feminists. The aim is to study the features of genesis and formation the feminist literary criticism in the USA, its fundamental theory, contents, directivity, personal specificity in comparative aspect. The methods are comparative analysis, cultural-historical approach, system and structure analysis, intertextual analysis. The research presented is the first attempt in the Ukrainian literary criticism that focuses on the comparative analysis of the American feminist literary criticism heritage (Heillbrun, Gilbert, Schwenger, Robinson, Kolodny, etc.). The genesis and formation of the American feminist critics is analyzed as compared to the phenomena of the French literary criticism (works by L Kristeva, S. de Beauvoir, L. Irigaray, S. Coffman, H. Cixous, etc.). The feminist criticism development is treated in the course of the gradual turn from the patriarchal values, western logocentrism to the female psychic structure. The author dwells on the sources of the feminist literary criticism that are traced back to the psychological and psychoanalytical theories as developed by Z. Freud, J. Lacan, marxist literary criticism, etc. The main focus is on the difference between the American and French streams in the feminist literary criticism and their interaction within the literature study and philosophy scholaring discourse. The theory and practice of the gender studies is under consideration; the phenomenon of gender is treated not as a sex category but as a complicated concept that involves social-cultural and psychological components (Friedman, Cixous, Gubar). Application sphere is the training courses.