Pryadko Y. S. Dovlatov's works in the American literary criticism: the problems of reception

The objects of scientific research are Dovlatov's interviews, his letters to relatives and friends; memoirs of the writer's friends, colleagues and relatives; the monographs which were published in the USA, articles, reviews, essays in periodicals, research reports and other works which show how S. Dovlatov's personality and oeuvre was received, the sections of books on the history of Russian literature of the twentieth century, which were published in the USA, the articles in literary encyclopaedias, anthologies and dictionaries. The goal of scientific research is to investigate the features of the reception of S. Dovlatov's personality and works by the American literary criticism. The methods of scientific research are biographical, statistical, descriptive, comparative, historical and functional, imagological and the method of receptive aesthetics. The results and novelty of scientific research are that the thesis author first systematized different works on S. Dovlatov's life and works in exile, called the reasons of the American literary criticism's interest to the writer's works; analyzed Dovlatov's interviews and letters to relatives and friends; memoirs of his friends, colleagues and relatives; the features of how the author had gone into the American social and cultural space. The researcher has used an imagological approach to understand Dovlatov's perception of the United States of America; has collected, analysed and systematized various works of American critics and specialists in literature devoted to S. Dovlatov's personality and oeuvre. Most of the research works have been translated and implemented into the literary practice by the thesis author. The author also identified three phases that show the dynamics of the writer's literary heritage reception by the American literary criticism. The spheres of using of the results of scientific research are general and special courses on the history of Russian literature of the twentieth century for the students of philological departments of higher education establishments and the investigation of typological common features of the Russian and American literature of this period.