純潔の構造

聖と俗としての恋愛

抄録

　In this paper I argue that Durkheim's theory of the sacred and profane offers a theoretical perspective from which to grasp the unique dynamics involved in the interplay between romantic love in the Victorian period and Victorian culture.Durkheim's later theory is particularly apt for exploring the sociological dimensions of emotional phenomena, and I argue that its focus on the "religious" elements of social life such as beliefs and rites makes it viable as a framework from which to understand romantic love as an historically distinct phenomenon. While the "modern cult of individual love" has previously been analyzed in terms of Durkheim's ritual theory by Randall Collins, I argue that Collins's understanding of romantic love lacks an historical perspective, and that while his theory is valuable in its explanation of the significance of courting rituals , thus incorporating Durkheim's assertion about the importance of "rites," it fails to incorporate Durkheim's emphasis on the importance of "beliefs" and symbols.
　As a case study aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of Durkheim's later theory in illuminating the nature of romantic love in the nineteenth century, I sketch the nature of both the beliefs and rites that made up the "religion" of romantic love in Victorian-period America. I then analyze the role of romantic love in the formation of the Victorian-period ideology of sexual purity in light of Durkheim's theory of the dual nature of the sacred as well as anthropological research on purity and pollution. I argue that the sacralization of romantic love brought about the coding of sex as a radically impure and polluting (profaning) force, and that the resulting need to purify sex led to the ritualization of sexual expression in marriage. This argument follows Foucault in rejecting the "repressive hypothesis" which characterizes so much theorizing about Victorian-period sexuality, but attributes the newfound preoccupation with sexuality in this period not to notions of "power/knowledge" but; rather to the symbolic power of the sacred and the equally powerful symbolic polluting force of the profane, resulting in an emphasis on extreme sexual purity outside of ritualized contexts.