DANDYISM: TYPE AND IMAGE. CRITERIA OF CULTURAL IDENTITY

Abstract

The article presents a cultural interpretation of dandyism, a notable phenomenon in Western culture of the 19th century. The scientific relevance of the article is determined by the polar assessments of dandies as a form of culture in bourgeois society. The article’s aim is to clarify the factors that mark the dandy identity, such as costume, accessories, manners, body language, norms of behavior in society. Their manifestations are considered in interaction: costume symbolizes material luxury and an idle lifestyle, while updating the new aesthetics of body; body language with the costume, provokes ways of communication and public behavior, allowing the dandy to become the standard of style. The subject of the article is not only the total view for dandyism, as a set of cultural norms and attitudes, but also its historically differentiated types. Thus, the dandy culture of the early 19th century was conditioned by the "game of aristocracy", a parody imitation of the lifestyle of high society. Late dandyism is identified as decadent, reflecting the alienation of man and his passive protest against capitalist values of the second half of the 19th century. The classic and decadent versions of the dandy lifestyle are personified by the example of two typical heroes, George Brummell and Charles Baudelaire. The first is presented as the personification of dandyism as a "form of culture", the second is an expression of its gradual marginalization. The results of the study can be used both in broad (cultural studies and history) and in specialized areas of humanitarian knowledge, primarily in everyday life culture studies and local history.