User:Natasa Siencnik/notes/bourdieu/

Abstract

Pierre Bourdieu:[1] The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed. In: Randal Johnson (Ed.): The Field of Cultural Production. Columbia University Press, 1993, p. 29–72.

From Science Direct: [2]
To be fully understood, literary production has to be approached in relational terms, by constructing the literary field, i.e. the space of literary prises de position that are possible in a given period in a given society. Prises de position arise from the encounter between particular agents' dispositions (their habitus, shaped by their social trajectory) and their position in a field of positions which is defined by the distribution of a specific form of capital. This specific literary (or artistic, or philosophical, etc.) capital functions within an ‘economy’ whose logic is an inversion of the logic of the larger economy of the society. The ‘interest in distinterestedness’ can be understood by examining the structural relations between the field of literary production and the field of class relations. A number of effects within the literary field arise from the homologies between positions within the two fields. This model is then used to analyze the particular case of the literary field in late 19th century France.

Mentioned Theorists

Claude Lévi-Strauss[3], 1908–2009
Ferdinand de Saussure[4], 1857–1913
Michel Foucault[5], 1926–1984
Itamar Even-Zohar[6], 1939
Tzvetan Todorov[7], 1939
Alfred Weber[8], 1868–1958

Key Points

1. Substantialism (Ernst Cassirer)
   • foregrounds the individual, or the visible interactions between individuals
   • social agents may be isolated individuals, groups or institutions
   • glorification of great individuals
2. Field of Cultural Production (Pierre Bourdieu)
   • radical break with the substantialist mode of thought
   • constructing the space of positions and of position-takings
   • science of the literary field is a form of analysis situs
   • each position is subjectively defined by the system of distinctive properties
   • each position depends on the other positions consituting the field
3. Capital and Profits
   • the structure of a field is the structure of the distribution of capital
   • capital governs success in the field and winning of profits (e.g. literary prestige)
4. Space of Position-Takings
   • structured set of the manifestations of social agents involved in a field
   • possession of a determinate quantity of specific capital (recognition)
   • determinate position in the structure of the distribution of this capital
5. Literary or Artistic Field
   • is a field of forces
   • is a field of struggles trying to transofrm the field of forces
   • struggles to defend or improve the position of the agents
   • position-taking is defined in relation to space of possibles
6. Meaning of a Work
   • changes automatically with the change in its field
   • classic works change constantly as the universe of coexistent works changes
   • get beyond dominant mode by repeating it instead of denouncing (parody)
   • canonical text or philosophical doxa
   • new groups modify, display the universe of possible options
7. Michel Foucault
   • field of strategic possibilities determined by conceptual games
   • refuses to relate works in any way to their social conditions of production
8. Defining the Field
   • escaping from the dilemma of internal reading of a work and external analysis
   • principle of position-takings lies in the structure and functioning of the field of positions
9. Defining a Work of Art
   • collective belief which knows and acknowledges it as a work of art
   • role of educational system to legitimate mode of consumption
   • works of art exist as symbolic objects only if they are known and recognized
   • producing consumers capable of knowing and recognizing the wor of art
10. Cultural Production and Power
    • the literary and artistic fiel (3) is contained within the field of power (2)
    • field of power is situated at the dominant pole of the field of class relations (1)
    • double hierarchy > the heteronomous principle of hierarchization
    • field is affected by the laws of the field which encompasses it
    • degree of public success is the main differentiating factor
    • most autonomous sector of the filed of cultural production is where the only audience aimed at is other producers
11. Principle of Hierarchization
    • literary or artistic field is the site of a struggle between two principles of hierarchization
    • heteronomous principle, dominate the field economically (bourgeois art)
    • autonomous principle (e.g. art for art's sake), independent from economy
    • struggle to impose the dominant principle of domination and definitions itself
    • monopoly of the power to say who are authorized to call themselves writers
    • monopoly of the power to consecrate producers or products
12. Structure of the Field
    • heteronomy arises from demand, which may take the form of personal commission
    • basis for evaluation of producers and products is the economic or political profit (sucess)
13. Hierarchies and Genres
    • from the economic point of view the hierarchy is simple and relatively stable
    • top of the hierarchy is drama, secures big profits > bourgeois audience (restricted)
    • at the bottom of the hierarchy is poetry with zero profit for a small number of producers
    • between the two is the novel, which can secure big profits for large number of producers