Russian Writers’ Impressions of America in the Mirror of American Literary Criticism

This article analyzes the monographs of American theorists of literature devoted to the study of artistic responses of Russian writers who visited the USA in the 20th century. Some books appeared in critical field of American scientists: “The City of Yellow Devil” by M.Gorky, “Iron Mirgorod” by S.Yesenin, “My Discovery of America” by V.Mayakovsky, “O’key” by B.Pilniak, “The Little Gold America” by I.Ilf and Y.Petrov. In the paper the books by Gorky and Ilf and Petrov are analyzed. American approach to these works is shown in different ways: from critics to estimation of their positive influence on Russians’ attitude towards the USA.