The Curse of the Wer.. - Site de Thomas - Free

WEREWOLVES AND SCHOLARS
[H]e is such a mangy, ill-looking cur, offensive alike to the nose and to the
touch, all decent people shrink away from him. … [he] grins to himself as
they give him the path, and permit him to continue his career of ravening
and rending. He must be discovered in the act of mauling one of our little
ones before we are moved to take hold of the brute and strangle him.
Now, it may be fearlessly asserted that there never lived an animal
of prey of uglier type than this two-legged creature, who poisons the
minds of little children to make his bread. Never a more dangerous one,
for his manginess is hidden under a sleek and glossy coat, and lips of
seeming innocence conceal his cruel teeth. His subtlety, too, is more
than canine. … Beware of him, O careful parents of little lads! He is as
cunning as the fabled vampire. Already he may have bitten your little
rosy-cheeked son Jack. 58
A string of words and phrases in this passage are persistently suggestive
of the werewolf, and the allusion to the vampire that is tacked on to the
end foreshadows the tendency furthered by Stoker to mingle vampiric
imagery with that of the werewolf.
The expression of concerns about morality and self-control in such
lavishly sensational language again suggests the perpetuation of a
romantic sensibility in the nineteenth century. In particular, the use
of colourful prose manifested a lingering penchant for the stylistic
mannerisms of romantic writing. Despite Ranke’s cautions against
authorial ornamentation, many authors still wanted to write, more
in the style of Jules Michelet, the romantic historian (and rival of
Ranke) who, as Roland Barthes suggests, ‘writes, instead of simply
“reporting”, “chronicling”, etc.’ 59 The werewolf image, with its deep
mythological roots and connections with fear, anxiety and insanity,
was often explored in the kind of language favoured by Michelet, who
excelled in the expression of the emotional or affective forces of history.
As Rankean empiricism continued to shade into positivist faith
in the absolute explanatory potential of science, however, the type
of language that carried authority began to change, and stylistic or
emotive affectations came to be viewed as problematic and, indeed,
unscientific.
This shift was connected with manifold developments in the structure
and social function of the universities from about mid-century. Various
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