THE VICTORIAN ERA THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE BIEDERMEIER STYLE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider the cultural values of the English middle class and the typical «Biederman» of the Victorian period through the prism of the ideals and principles of the Biedermeier era.
Research methodology consists in the application of methods of analysis and synthesis, systematization of facts, comparison and generalization of research results. The system-historical method made it possible to examine the cultural values of the Victorian era through the prism of Biedermeier's ideals.
The practical significance of the research is that its materials can be used in educational courses of secondary or higher education institutions.
The results. It was found that in England the Biedermeier style was born in the bowels of the early Victorian era and was partly a mirror image of the German and Austrian Biedermeier style, partly a compromise between tradition and scientific and technical achievements. It was emphasized that the emergence and firm rooting of the style was facilitated by the religious revival in England in the 19th century, the excessive fascination of English society with German culture and the formation of the English middle class – «Biederman». It is justified that the style of English Biedermeier was a harmonious balance between imperial ambitions, the struggle of the nation's ruling elite for leadership in the world political
system, the cultivation of the traditions of Ancient Rome and sentimental idealism, glamour, the cult of family and the Christmas holiday, virtue and respectability. It was determined that the essence of Victorian culture is the equivalence of the Great and the Small, the imperial and the Biedermeier.
Scientific novelty – for the first time the Victorian era was considered in the context of social identity, personal involvement, mentality, symbolic forms, stylistic orientations of the Biedermeier era, which was born in the bowels of the early Victorian era.