meta-anthropology; revealing fundamental
points for understanding the subject (care,
responsibility, life, energy, etc.); the protest
against permanent aesthetic canons having
demonstrated their ineffectiveness.
The biography obtains significant popularity as
the most required genre. The ideals of the century
influenced individual’s daily life arrangement.
Various biographical research schools emerge –
psycho-biographical (based on the impact of
Z. Freud’s views), historical (Lytton Strachey),
hermeneutic (Wilhelm Dilthey), popular science,
etc. Multifaceted genre types are being
distinguished, i.e. historical, fiction, scientific,
"new", artistic, etc. Their methodological
approaches differ, but they have some common
characteristics: interest in the character’s inner
world, activity motives, creativity
manifestations, aspiring after objectivity,
reliance on the experience and the predecessors’
achievements, etc. The position of the author
being responsible for the way of representation,
the created image of the profile of the narration
is gradually being confirmed.
During the abovementioned period, philosophers
study both theoretical and historical aspects of
the master’s chronicle, as well as distinguish the
structuring criteria, study the epoch
transformations, which means that the stage of
considering the genre laws emerges. Each
research school manifest their view, but the issue
that unites them is a detailed study of private life
facts, the awareness of the artist's opus as a
biography component.
It is worth notifying that the states with a
totalitarian system promote an idealized type of
biography (its genesis takes its cue from the so-
called English Victorian chronicles of the 19th
century). Its dominant features are the following:
the canonization of the character of the narration,
the disclosure of only positive features of life
creativity (the facts of daily life characterized by
an immoral nature are being suppressed), the
identification of the significant role of a
personality for cultural development, the
reproduction of overall love and piety for the
chronicle’s profile. This approach treats an artist
as a unique individual who is important for the
society, and thus he has no right for mistake.
They are mediators of a perfect system of values,
while their opuses are a reflection of a highly
ethical way of being.
Thus, the Modernism has witnessed the further
progress of personality studies marked by the
emergence of various views on the genre, the
desire to understand its laws, to become aware of
the society’s history through the master’s
ontology and their achievements. Within the
period under consideration, the elaborations of
chronicle researchers of the preceding European
epochs of cultural development are being
synthesized, and on their basis, an innovative
methodological basis is constructed, and this
becomes the foundation for the boost of
biographical studies in the late 20th century.
The late 20th century is the Postmodernism era.
Its emergence was a consequence of the events of
the Second World War experienced by the
humanity, the crisis of humanitarian knowledge,
social consciousness transformation and seeking
innovative forms of rendering the reality. The
anthropocentric paradigm of the abovementioned
period specifically develops the achievements of
the preceding eras (through their synthesis,
collage, quotations, allusions, etc.), and instantly
comes into conflict with them, and, via revealing
controversies, constructs an ideological platform
for the further civilizational progress.
The era awareness, manifesting its holistic
picture is impossible without mastering the
master’s socio-cultural role and their ontology
being profoundly presented within the
chronicles. Existential changes have
presupposed the features of structuring,
perception by the genre recipients and altered the
semantic dominants. The crucial qualities of the
artistic biography are the interdisciplinary issue
(the authors appeal to psychology, sociology,
culture studies, philosophy, literature, and other
sciences) and syncretism (the creative
combination of miscellaneous humanitarian
knowledge suggests a new interpretation of
individual chronicles).
The integration of the achievements of
psychology contributes to the study of
personality behavior mechanisms, revealing the
specifics of shaping and evolving the talent, key
events analysis, their impact on the master’s
further daily life. Such vision enables to realize
architectonically the ongoing continuity of the
individual’s creative self-expression. The
involvement of sociological elaborations
contributes to understanding the personality’s
public position and their role in the course of
social processes (reviewing them via opuses), the
intersubjective phenomena transference. The
master exists within a certain epoch, the events
of which predetermine the world outlook,
actions, the creativity issue, etc. Therefore, the
involvement of historical achievements enhances
the reproduction of individual and corporate