Methodological issues of interartistic comparison

Abstract

Aim The article describes the concept of interartistic comparison. Thus, the aim is to clarify the methodological problems of interartistic relations analysis.

Methods The study of literature relationship with other arts is viewed in comparative studies perspective, therefore, the comparative analysis main points of interpreting this issue were analyzed. From the point of view of the latest research, comparative activities are proposed to be regarded as interdisciplinary.

Results Particular attention is drawn to the measurements and criteria of interartistic comparison within the article. As a result, the methods are presented, the use of which contributes to fruitful analysis of interartistic comparison or deepens the research based on it. It goes about interdisciplinary comparative studies, semiotics, and intermediality.

Scientific novelty It was suggested to analyze the Alejo Carpentier’s novella Concierto barroco (Baroque Concert) and Michel Butor’s Dialogue with 33 variations on Ludwig van Beethoven’s Diabelli waltz as the examples of interartistic comparison. It was established that in Carpentier’s novella, the title alone refers to interartistic comparison because the author, known for his musicological works, applies the concept «Baroque Concert» as a composite position that shapes the writer’s conceptual viewpoint of history, expressed via various musical phenomena coexistence in one cultural space. Butor’s text is presented as a Beethoven’s musical text’s possibilities of existence.

Practical significance It is proved that interartistic comparison is a productive means of text analysis which shows affinity and complementarity of arts. The central methodological problem of interartistic comparison seems to be the lack of comparative basis of heterogeneous compared objects, which may be solved by comparing artistic structures, not physical properties of objects, ways of organizing artistic works, not means of organization, the most significant relationships, not material components.