• DOI:10.5604/01.3001.0014.5813
• Corpus ID: 56209717

Purity and Danger in Fin-de-Siècle Culture: A Psycho-historical Interpretation of Wagner, Stoker and Zola

@article{Labrie2020PurityAD,
  title={Purity and Danger in Fin-de-Si{\`e}cle Culture: A Psycho-historical Interpretation of Wagner, Stoker and Zola},
  author={A. Labrie},
  journal={Tekstualia},
  year={2020}
}

• A. Labrie
• Published 13 December 2020
• Art
• Tekstualia

According to the anthropologist Mary Douglas, the quest for purity is usually accompanied
by fears of change, ambiguity and transgression. Translating Douglas’ insights into historical terms,
one may assume that sensibilities about what is pure and what is impure grow stronger during
times of intense social and political change, as exemplifi ed by the stormy decades around 1900.
This period was characterized by a profound identity-crisis and at the same time was marked
by a quest for purity. One may think of a deepened concern for hygiene, of the rise of racist movements,
but also of an intense longing for cultural reform and regeneration. Notwithstanding their
many differences, these phenomena are linked through their concern for the formal distinction between
what is pure and what is impure. A study of the work of Wagner, Bram Stoker and Zola gives
some insight into the language of purity, serves to show the religious meaning of formal categories
of purity and impurity, and makes it clear that the quest for purity in one area is related to the quest
for purity in another area.