The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature

The Field of Cultural Production brings together Bourdieu's most important writings on art, literature, and aesthetics. Bourdieu develops a highly original approach to the study of literary and artistic works, addressing many of the key issues that have preoccupied literary, art, and cultural criticism in the late twentieth century: aesthetic value and judgement, the social contexts of cultural practice, the role of intellectuals and artists, and the structures of literary and artistic authority. Bourdieu elaborates a theory of the cultural field which situates artistic works within the social conditions of their production, circulation, and consumption. He examines the individuals and institutions involved in making cultural products what they are: the writers, artists, publishers, critics, dealers, galleries and academies. He analyses the structure of the cultural field itself as well as its position within the broader social structures of power. The essays in this volume deal with such diverse topics as Flaubert's point of view, Manet's aesthetic revolution, the historical creation of the pure gaze, and the relationship between art and power. The Field of Cultural Production will be of interest to students and scholars from a wide range of disciplines: sociology and social theory, literature, art, and cultural studies.

Pierre Bourdieu is professor of Sociology at the College de France. His numerous other works include Homo Academicus and Language and Symbolic Power.