Durkheim’s Ambivalence toward Art

This chapter examines Durkheim’s perspectives on art at the intersection of his sociological commitment to develop sociology as a science and his political and personal imperative to promote social solidarity. It traces Durkheim’s views on art from his early career at Bordeaux to his “cultural turn” in Paris, manifested in The Elementary Forms, exploring the cultural life of Australian “primitives.” Before this turn, Durkheim had discussed art’s contributions to society: as a facilitator for teaching morality and as leisure and recreation. But it is while reading about tribal sacred rituals that he discovered art and religion’s powerful role in enhancing solidarity and group identity. What has been termed ambivalence toward art morphs into a more comprehensive and appreciative perspective, which Durkheim described as fundamentally linked to religion: art in the service of religion and society. Additionally, the chapter explores transgressive approaches to Durkheim’s views on art, as well as contemporary authors who have probed Durkheim’s perspectives on art.