Ukrainian Baroque in the structure of official explanations:the aspect of architectural historiography

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to reveal the montage of meaning of the Ukrainian Baroque style category with its ideology promoting components. Statements, which became the expression of cultural phenomenon interpretation, are the basic object of the analyzing. The research is particular due to the fact that it studies the established in architectural historiography explanations, but not limited to the only architectural discourse. It is selective as well, because it represents the common statements’ circulation tendency. 
The basic methods are structural analysis, content analysis, genealogical, comparative. 
Results. During the study of selected explanations of Ukrainian Baroque in architecture, the four chronological periods were defined. Each ideologically divided period is distinct by a typical set of patterns and imperatives. The single explanations are expressively intertextual. It was revealed that from the beginning of research interest to the baroque monuments conceptual apparatus raised a cultural value of the region that was a part of the Russian Empire. It contributed to integration in the European cultural processes as well as established the possibility of broader identification, particularly national one. At last it intensified the explanations. Therefore, the concept of national was an integral counterpart of the definition of baroque, conflicting with it to varying degrees. The discussions from the beginning of 1940s about national in architectural style left a negative mark on the meaning of baroque as alien to the traditional folk. This dichotomy developed in the following decades and formed to stylistic concepts in 1960s and 1990s, used today by academics. 
Conclusions. The constructed explanations laid the ground to contemporary discourse of Ukrainian Baroque. It should be noted that it relates to the paradigm developed in the 1990s. The myth of national identity style which was a substitute of Ukrainian Baroque since 1950–1960s transformed to Eurocentric at that time, but in fact remained the same conceptual wholeness. That is, the meaning of baroque as national style became legitimate during the years of Ukrainian independence, but it transferred the traces of Soviet-Marxist methodology, which obviously limits and deforms perception. Therefore, it needs to be revised.