To Be Stylish: The Development of the Concept of Style in the Eastern and Western Tradition

The Development of the Concept of Style in the Eastern and Western Tradition

Abstract

The article presents the comparative analysis of the sources of the Oriental and European studies of styles. It highlights the qualitative difference between the paradigms of the eastern and western traditions of style: the eastern tradition focuses on universal, unifying definitions of style, while the western understanding of style is aimed at building a hierarchy of cultures, with Greco-Roman antiquity and the Mediterranean region being seen as an unconditional center. Crisis phenomena in modern architecture are considered as practical consequences of the development of western studies of style.