PHENOMENON OF ROMANTICISM IN THE 19TH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE: A SURVEY OF SCIENTIFIC SOURCES

Abstract

In this article, an attempt is made to systematize the variety of historically determined approaches to widely discussed multi-aspect phenomenon of American Romanticism. Priority research areas have been distinguished, such as periodization problems, the matters of Puritatism, Religious Exceptionalism, and the formation of the American Literary Canon, and also aesthetic and philosophical background of Romanticism in the context of modern polycritical reading. Since the priority status of Romanticism in American culture determines the existence of its specific nationally marked features (in comparison with the British version of the phenomenon), the article represents a number of scientific perspectives concerning the peculiarities of the genre system (D. Nalyvaiko, Yu. Kovalev, etc.), the canon (F. O. Matthiesen, T. Mykhed, etc.), Puritan component (T. Mykhed, S. Bercovitch, P. Caldwell, P. Carafiol), etc., – all the factors which make American Romanticism unique. Considerable attention is paid to the scope of the term “American Renaissance” (F. O. Matthiesen), the notion mostly used for indicating the middle period, the so called “golden age” of the phenomenon in question The article also defines principle vectors of long-term debates regarding the nature, problematics, and other aspects of American Renaissance (L. Reynolds, D. Pease, L. Buell, J. Tompkins, D. Leverenz, J. Grossman, J. V. Matthews, etc.). The juxtaposition of Slavonic and American academic contribution to the problem shows the attempts of post-Soviet scholars to get rid of historically modified gaps in the investigation of Romanticism. Modern achievements of Ukrainian researchers form principally new interpretative background which forces traditionally marginalized objects (female prose, children’s literature, African American writings, etc.) radiate new senses and create new angles of scientific approaches.