The textbook gives a new vision of foreign literature of the 20th century, offers a detailed analysis of key works by such writers as F. Kafka, T. Mann, G. Hesse, J. Joyce, T. S. Eliot, W. Faulkner, J. -P. Sartre, H. L. Borges. Particular attention is paid to the consideration of the theoretical problems of the era (expressionism, surrealism, existentialism, postmodernism, etc.), for which the material of the literatures of France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, the USA, and Latin American countries of the 1910-1990s is attracted.