RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN HORROR FICTION AS A GENRE, CREATIVE WRITING AND EDUCATIONAL PHENOMENON: A PROBLEM STATEMENT

Although the genre of horror has gained an extraordinary popularity in contemporary literature, it still raises controversy among specialists. The situation in Russia is especially complicated. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Russian horror fiction used to develop concurrently with the evolution of horror genre in the U.S., but after the revolution of 1917 and until the late 1980s this tradition was interrupted in Russia. Therefore, nowadays the question “What is horror fiction?” is unclear for Russian philologists, the question “How to write horror fiction?” is unclear for Russian writers, and including the horror genre in literature syllabus is regarded by Russian professors and teachers as a forbidden topic. The situation is different in the United States where a long-standing tradition of interpreting the category of the horrible has been created. Modern American scientists, philosophers, writers and educators agree that horror fiction in its best manifestations touches upon essential problems of a human soul. It allows to exert a powerful positive influence on the formation and development of a personality. Throughout the 20th century, the genre of horror was systematically evolving in the U.S., and as of today, it is American horror fiction that sets the standards of the genre all over the world. The aim of this research is to describe horror fiction as a dynamically developing genre from three points of view: 1) through comparative and genre analyzis of horror fiction in the U.S. and Russia; 2) by studying narrative strategies which are used by horror writers in the U.S.; 3) by surveying principles of teaching the horror genre in an American multicultural educational environment. After experiencing decades of oblivion, the genre of horror can revive in Russia thanks to the critical mastering of the U.S. experience, where the genre tradition has never been interrupted. A list of bibliography is attached to help beginner researchers with their study of the subject.