Thomas Wolfe through the lens of Richard S. Kennedy

The article explores the works of Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) through the interpretation of the literary scholar Richard S. Kennedy (1920–2002). The analysis is based on Kennedy's monograph «The Window of Memory: The Literary Career of Thomas Wolfe» (1962), which traces the evolution of the writer's artistic world. Kennedy emphasizes that the starting point of Wolfe's creativity was deeply autobiographical prose, which, through a process of transformation, began to integrate sharp social commentary into the narrative fabric. The article examines in detail the key stages of Wolfe's creative path: the formation of his style under the influence of his mentors, his crucial collaboration with editor Maxwell Perkins (1884–1947), and the impact of historical events (the Great Depression, the rise of European totalitarianism) on his worldview. Special attention is paid to the analysis of his novels, which reveal what Kennedy identifies as Wolfe's central themes: the search for identity, the conflict between the artist and society, a critique of the American Dream, the problem of time, and the contemplation of collective memory. Kennedy highlights Wolfe's innovative synthesis of autobiography with universal humanistic themes and underscores his significant role in the development of 20th-century American literature. The methodological framework of this article focuses on analyzing Kennedy's own scholarly legacy and includes the following methods: 1) Historical-cultural: examining Kennedy's monograph within the context of the development of Wolfe studies; 2) Comparative: juxtaposing Kennedy's monograph with other research; 3) Textual analysis: investigating the internal structure of the monograph, its composition, and system of argumentation. The novelty of the research lies in its analysis of Kennedy's fundamental scholarly work, its assessment of his contribution to literary criticism, and its identification of the methodological principles that established the monograph as a classic of Wolfe studies. The author demonstrates how Kennedy's work, characterized by contemporaries as the first comprehensive study of Wolfe's oeuvre, shifted the critical focus from the writer's perceived "flaws" to problems of poetics, structure, symbolism, key themes, genre, etc. The article shows that the scholarly discussion initiated by Kennedy stimulated a re-evaluation of Wolfe's work and paved the way for academic editions. The novelty is further revealed by tracing the continuity from Kennedy's methods to the works of his successors (Reeves, Holman, Donald, Idol), who applied and developed his approaches in new thematic and biographical contexts.