Features of R. Kipling’s Work in the Naturalist Prose of F. Norris

Abstract

The article focuses on estimating the influence of Rudyard Kipling’s figure on the works of his younger contemporary, the American Frank Norris. The author comes to the conclusion that the English writer fundamentally determined his literary follower’s development vector. Kipling who has become extremely popular among American readers raises Norris’s interest toward neo-romantic short story. The early stage of Norris’s work is noted by Kipling’s powerful influence and the article reveals common plot, compositional and stylistic elements in their works. The writers are united by artistic ideals: Kipling and Norris emphasize the exotic and the criminal and treat the concept of masculinity in a similar way in their short stories. The relevance and scientific novelty of the article are determined by the fact that the article studies Norris’s short stories which were previously unexplored in Russian literary criticism. The author makes an attempt to determine the significance of romanticism’s legacy for Norris’s work and to demonstrate its close relationship with naturalism, exploring various works by R. Kipling. The article uses the following methods: elements of the biographical method; estimation of Norris's theoretical ideas according to the principles of cultural studies; comparative analysis of the works of the two authors. The article can be used in teaching the history of foreign (in particular, American) literature in higher educational institutions.