Literature of the Americas Literature of the Americas 2541-7894 2542-243X IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2024-17-318-373 Research Article Articles Ivan Kashkin’s Course on American Literary History (1928) 2024 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The paper is dedicated to Ivan Kashkin’s groundbreaking lecture course on the history of American literature. It lasted several semesters for students of different years, covered literary history of the United States from the 17th century. until the 1920s and was complemented by seminars (“practicums”). Kashkin drew up a detailed plan for the course — lectures and seminars — in 1928 and for his classes at the Higher State Literary Courses and the Higher Courses of Foreign Languages at the Library of Foreign Literature. Kashkin’s plan included an additional “translation” element: he had been teaching translation to his students since 1925, and the culmination of this career was Kashkin’s work at the new Institute of Foreign Languages (1930–1933): the students to whom he taught there formed Kashkin’s famous First Translation Team. However the course of American literary history that was supposed to last dozens of class hours, was never continued or renewed either by Kashkin himself or by anyone else: it simply didn’t fit into the increasingly standardized university curricula. It is nevertheless important to go back to the origins of Soviet American studies and analyse the valuable experience of Kashkin’s project, its breadth and detailed elaboration. Kashkin’s plans of lectures and seminars published in the addendum are stored in his personal fund in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.   1. Azov 2013 — Azov, Andrei G. Poverzhennye bukvalisty. Iz istorii hudozhestvennogo perevoda v SSSR v 1920–1960-e gody. [Defeated literalists. From the history of literary translation in the USSR in the 1920s–1960s]. Moscow: VShE Publ., 2013. (In Russ.) 2. Kashkin 1966 — Kashkin, Ivan A. Ernest Heminguei. Kritiko-biograficheskii ocherk [Ernest Hemingway. Critical-biographical essay]. Moscow: Hudozhestvennaia literatura publ., 1966. (In Russ.) 3. Kucherskaja 2023 — Kucherskaja, Мaja A. “Vysshie gosudarstvennye literaturnye kursy.” [“Higher State Literary Courses”]. In Zbornik matice srbski za slavistiku. Novi Sad, 2023, vol. 103, pp. 406–421. (In Russ.) 4. Nechaeva 2023 — Nechaeva, Olga. “Vysshii literaturno-hudozhestvennyi institut im. V.Ya. Briusova” [“Higher Literary and Art Institute Named After V.Ya. Bryusov”]. In Zbornik matice srbski za slavistiku. Novi Sad, 2023, vol. 103, pp. 389–405. (In Russ.) 5. Rudomino 2005 — Rudomino, Margarita I. Knigi moei sud'by. Vospominania rovesnicy XX veka. [Books of my Destiny. Memoirs of a 20th Century Age-Mate]. Moscow: Progress-Pleiada Publ., 2005. (In Russ.) 6. Smirnova 2021 — Smirnova, Maria A. “Iz istorii stanovleniia principov prepodavaniia hudozhestvennogo perevoda v vysshei shkole: po materialam arhiva I.A. Kashkina” [“From the History of the Formation of the Principles of Teaching Literary Translation in Higher Education: Based on Materials from the Archive of I.A. Kashkina”]; “I.A. Kashkin. Iz arhivov 1920-h godov.” [“I.A. Kashkin. From the Archives of the 1920s”]. In Novacii i tradiciia russkoi shkoly perevoda [Innovations and Traditions of the Russian School of Translation], edited by N.I. Reingol'd. Moscow: RGGU Publ., 2021, pp. 121–127, 342–355. (In Russ.)