Axiology in literary criticism: main directions of value analysis

The paper is devoted to the methodology of axiological approach in literary criticism. This approach, known to many humanities (sociology, psychology, cultural studies, etc.), is aimed at studying the phenomenon of value in art and combines the achievements of the theory of literature and axiology - philosophy of values. Based on the definitions of the terms “approach” and “method”, the author describes two fundamentally different levels of any methodology. The first one represents theoretical and philosophical principles, and the second one - the various stages of analytical and interpretative work with the text. In other words, the approach is included in the method as a theoretical setting. Therefore, several methods can be developed based, for example, on the axiological approach since the situation of value relations (the position of a subject and an object), as well as the specific aspect of artistic content or form to be analyzed, remains variable. Referring to the history of axiology as a philosophical discipline, the author identifies seven characteristics of the “value” category that are important for this category to be analyzed in the literature. These characteristics include the subject-object nature of value; the relationship between the type of value and its medium; hierarchy; optional character; teleologicity and ontologicity. Then, three levels of axiological research, contributing diverse meaning to the concept of value, are examined in detail. At the level of a literary work, value is understood as a separate element of the artistic world. The subjects of value relations are various narrative instances: implied author, narrator, character and implied reader. At the level of a literary process, the value is a complete literary work, occupying a specific place in the literary hierarchy of a particular culture. The subject of value relations, in this case, is a real reader, including a literary critic and literary scholar. At the level of the writer’s biography, value is a component of his value system, an ideal that is reflected not only in his artistic work but also in non-literary texts (memoirs, journalism, letters) and biographical facts.

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