The interest, raised recently towards English language, the development of international relations on different levels has reasoned the desire to learn as much as possible about the country where this language originated as well as about its culture. The literature is that magic key that opens the door of cognition of many sphere of human knowledge. It helps us to learn some interesting facts about history, to know more about people's life in other countries. Sometimes, while reading a book, we can analyse actions of its' characters and it helps us to draw some certain conclusion. That’s why I find studying foreign literature is not only interesting, but also very useful[1]. The theme of my course paper is American and English literature in 20th century. First of all what is literature? The word itself connected to words like “letter”. It means any form of communication which is written down. But we use the word to describe a certain kind of writing, a certain category of written communication. [1] M. Hecker, T. Volosova, A. Doroshevich “English Literature" Moscow “Prosveshchenye” 1975