Historical mystery/detective as a literary form of artistic interpretation of history and culture

The purpose of the article is to determine specifics of historical, detective, and other retro-genres and their functioning in contemporary literature. The methodology of the work is built on interdisciplinary integration of leading methods of the contemporary Cultural studies, philosophy, and study of art. The culturological hermeneutics is a dominant polymethodological approach. The history-cultural method gives an opportunity to trace genetic links and tendencies of transformations of genres. The comparative analysis allows to distinguish typologically similar elements in different genres and to differentiate various forms that can be convergently alike. The scientific novelty of the work lies in clarification of the correlation of historical, detective, and fantastic genres, defining their specifics in artistic interpretation of history; the term "retro-genres " is introduced. Conclusions. The historical detective and other retro-genres enjoy considerable popularity, as they complement the attractions of the detective with its intrigue, with the possibility of escapist immersion in another epoch, and propose the satisfaction of curiosity as to the past of a city, country and world. There is a positive factor of the possibility of deeper and more emotional cognition of human inheritance, personal and national identity in the globalized world. The contemporary historical detective helps to get not just the general impression, but also solid facts about history, topography and "cultural soul" of city and country. For authors one of the most attractive periods is the second half of ХІХ – beginning of ХХ ct. One of the reasons is that the Neoromantics founded the canons of genres that stay popular to this day, and crated the mythologized image of city. Many of these tendencies are characteristic for the world cultural process, still, there are national trends linked both to the specific historical-cultural context and to the national mentality. For instance, in Ukrainian historical detective there is a noticeable tendency to the in-depth research of momentous historical processes in the times of bifurcation. Sometimes there are ironical rethinking of the past in a post-colonial spirit. Now this genre is flourishing, and its incessant transformations deserve further research. Key words: cultural studies, detective/mystery, historical detective, retro, artistic interpretation.