The Concept of “World Literature” in Soviet Culture of the Thirties

Master's thesis is devoted to the concept of "world literature". This term has been the subject of discussions in the Western humanities in recent decades. The approach to "world literature" as a theoretical problem initialized the emergence of a field for interdisciplinary research, but within the framework of the debate the Soviet project of "world literature" was not considered before. In this study an investigation has been done on the genesis of the concept and its way of entering the Soviet discourse. The contexts and forms of the term functioning have been studied on the material of the history of the First Congress of Soviet Writers and the press (newspapers: "Pravda" and "Lituraturnaya Gazeta"). The strategy of the implementation of the concept has been analyzed in the publishing practice of "Academia". In correlation with the political situation, it was concluded in the 30s that the fate of the concept of "world literature" was affected by a number of contradictory tendencies characteristic to the Soviet culture of the decade: a turn towards internationalism in foreign policy and cultural diplomacy along with the tightening of the regime in the nationalist direction.