Authors

Gumerova Roksana F.
The myth of the programmatic text: Wilhelm Worringer and German Expressionism in historiographical perspectiv

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (94) June, 2026

This article critically deconstructs a persistent art-historical myth: that Wilhelm Worringer’s “Abstraction and Empathy” served as a programmatic text and theoretical foundation for German Expressionism. Employing a methodology synthesizing discourse genealogy (Foucault), deconstruction (Derrida), and source criticism, the analysis focuses less on proving actual influence and more on exposing the process of myth-making. It shows how this convenient but poorly documented thesis of Worringer’s direct conceptual influence was forged and cemented by the demands of early criticism, ideological debate (notably by Georg Lukács), and postwar academic institutionalization. As an alternative, the article advances and defends the thesis of the theory’s discursive-legitimizing function: it offered not creative ideas but an authoritative language, historical narrative, and analytical framework to comprehend and legitimize an already existing artistic phenomenon.