Bentia I. The Worldview of Sentimentalism’s Cultural Hero through the Lens of Genre and Style

Iuliia Bentia. The Worldview of Sentimentalism’s Cultural Hero through the Lens of Genre and Style. — Qualifying scientific work submitted as a manuscript. The dissertation on competition of a scientific degree of the candidate of art history on a specialty 26.00.01 — Theory and History of Culture. — Modern Arts Research Institute, National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Kyiv, 2021. The thesis examines sentimentalism as a style, seen through the lens of the cultural hero of that time. The study analyzes the materials of life and work of the composer C. P. E. Bach, a central figure of German musical sentimentalism; the work Der Tod Jesu by C. H. Graun, a prominent oratorio of the mid-eighteenth century; and J. W. Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. The figure of the cultural hero of sentimentalism is discussed in its three manifestations: as a brilliant artist, an iconic work of art, and a protagonist of a novel. Following an analysis of contemporary historical and cultural concepts, the thesis shows that the category of style contains considerable heuristic promise for a comprehensive view of the cultural processes of the period of sentimentalism. The author further demonstrates that style can represent a system of coordinates for systematizing artistic phenomena, and serve as a prerequisite for understanding the art of the past and present and as a ‘transmitter’ of cultural values. As the key for the interpretation of specific literary texts, style also enables contacts between phenomena of distinct types and rises to the level of the history of ideas. Since style cannot be limited to its ‘progressive’ qualities, it does not contain an axiological component; however, it allows for drawing parallels between characteristics of philosophical and worldview nature and those pertaining to genre and technology. Keywords: sentimentalism, style, cultural hero, worldview, Enlightenment, musical art of the 18th century, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Carl Heinrich Graun, Werther.