The Performative Character of Style

The redefinition of the concept of style in the 19th century — a broad theoretical and ‘foundationalist’ inquiry central to the era’s architectural preoccupations — reflected the desire to understand the cultural and material mechanism through which ‘authentic’ architectures were born. It focused upon the artistic unity within a given historical period, not as some abstract speculation on ideal form, but as a reflection on the constitutive formation of artistic cultures: not what makes an architecture beautiful, but what makes it authentic and living. Focusing, amongst many authors, upon the theoretical work of French architect Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) as a case study, I will explore how ‘style-theory’ was a search to understand the profound nature of the creative act itself, how it sought to grapple with humanity’s very ‘shaping power’.