American writers pay a visit to the USSR. “Space” and “time” as the core categories in the American travel literature in the 1920–1940s

Abstract

In the academic field, Soviet-American relations are more often studied in the context of the Cold War, while bilateral contacts in the first half of the 20th century are much less represented. Research focuses more on formal cultural diplomacy, implemented through the organization of cultural exhibitions, film festivals and creative initiatives, rather than on visits by foreign intellectuals motivated to see the Soviet country from the inside. The article examines the plot-forming categories of “space” and “time” in the travelogue works of American writers who personally visited the USSR in the 1920–1940s. The focus of the study is the travel diaries of Theodore Dreiser, Langston Hughes and John Steinbeck. Each travel journal operates within its own spatial boundaries and time period within the geography of the USSR and a given chronological period of the 20th century. The key aspect of this work is the analysis of the chronotope (according to M.M. Bakhtin), which represents the interconnection of temporal and spatial relations in the narrative. Being constructed by the writer, the chronotope consists of premises, signs, symbols and ideas that bear the imprint of the time of a given period and are inextricably linked with the figure of the author of each travel diary under consideration. This approach to the analysis of the diary text makes it possible to reveal the writer’s understanding of the reality around him, which he attributes with meaning in the context of the historical and political realities of the given epoch.