Biographical approach in the discourse of artistic country studies

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to specify the essence of the biographical approach, to reveal its role in interpreting material and spiritual achievements of the mankind and to establish its significance in the discourse of artistic country studies on the basis of thorough analysis and summary of the works in the spheres of sociology, culture and art studies. Methodology of the research consists in implementation of analytical, culturological, historical, axiological and systematic methods in order to reveal the sense of the biographical approach in the discourse of artistic country studies. Scientific novelty. The authors of the article specify the essence of the biographical approach, provide arguments in favour of its efficiency in culture interpretation and substantiate its importance for realizing the achievements of artistic country studies. Conclusions. Analysis of the works dedicated to the issue of biographical approach enabled the authors to ascertain that it is a specific scientific trend aimed at the study of anthropological processes, the basis of which is the ontological chronicle of a particular person, projection of their inner world, methodology of studying personal experience and fixation of this experience in history with the purpose to understand the very essence of the civilization. The direct object of the approach mentioned above is the description of an individual‘s life and creative functioning from the moment of birth to death, and its subject is a social and artistic situation that gives certain meaning and ideological wholeness to human existence. Chronicle is a portrait of the epoch, which reveals conceptual principles of certain age. Highlighting the world outlook of a creative personality, the biographical approach interprets the person‘s existential ideas, discovers their relations to the events of social and political life, as well as material and spiritual achievements of the mankind. Paying attention to the major events in the chronicle of an artist, modern art studies reconstruct and interpret the sense of the previous epochs and helps to find the sense of the person‘s life. Biographical approach as a way to study the artistic culture of the region promotes discovery of the peculiarities of its development within certain period, finding the ways to transform material and spiritual spheres and acknowledgement of the postulate that history is created by people and the process of art formation in the region depends on activities of its prominent figures.