Vengrynovych N. Phenomenon of Ivan Franko's Naturalism and American Prose of the Late XIX - Early XX Centuries

Object of study: Ivan Franko's works of art with pronounced naturalistic constituents (story "Boa constrictor", short stories "Amongst Kind People", "Converted Sinner", "Oilman", "At the Bottom", "Gipsy" and others) and American writers' prose namely Frank Norris' (novels "The Octopus: A California Story", "McTeague: A Story of San Francisco", short story "A Man's Woman"), Stephen Crane's (novel "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets", short stories "His New Mittens", "George's Mother") and Theodore Dreiser's (novels "Sister Carrie" and "An American Tragedy" in the first place). Aim: comparative investigation of the phenomenon of naturalism in creative works of I. Franko and American writers of the late XIX - early XX centuries scilicet F. Norris, S. Crane and T. Dreiser at formal aesthetic and thematically conceptual levels with the aim of elucidation of the writers' creative evolution peculiarities as well as determination of specific features of the national literary processes development. Research Methods: systemic-functional approach, comparative-historical, culture-historical, comparative-typological, hermeneutical, partially biographical, psychoanalytical and structural methods as well as method of analysis and synthesis. Investigation Results, Novelty: for the first time it has been conducted typological comparative analysis of the prose works of I. Franko and American writers of the late XIX - early XX centuries namely F. Norris, S. Crane and T. Dreiser; typological coincidences and differences of the Ukrainian and American versions of naturalism have been revealed, their role and significance in the literary process development in their national literatures have been clarified. Sphere of Application: courses of Ukrainian and world literary history, literary theory and comparative literature study at higher educational establishments.