On the Idiosyncratic Nature of Ukrainian Neoclassicists in the Context of the East-West Cultural Orientation

Abstract

The paper investigates the idiosyncratic nature of Ukrainian neoclassicists in connection with the issue of the 1920s cultural orientation between the East and the West. Based on the scholarly-polemic articles and poem compositions (original and translations), neoclassical literature concepts, as well as the gist and peculiarity of their pro-European stance was determined. It is revealed that the theoretical bases for conceptual frameworks expressed by those experts amount to the Europeanism, Europeanization and Europe concepts as a cultural and axiological category. Hellenic aesthetic criteria which neoclassicists are ruled by in the evaluation of art and socio-political occurrences, cause their universal stands between the East and the West. Their concept anticipates the realization of traditionalism, cultural syncretism and aesthetical maximalism. As a result, the statement about the value of each and every national’ culture and about the constructive role of the principle of diversity in unity becomes evident. Their concept foresees the use of spiritual and intellectual achievements of both parts of Europe, in condition of the primary role of aesthetic criteria. The position of neoclassicists of the Ukrainian borderlands can be evaluated as an attempt to unify East and West on the basis of the universal axiology of European cultural tradition, and to break the opposition in between.