The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field / Edition 1

by Pierre Bourdieu, Susan Emanuel

Overview

Written with verve and intensity (and a good bit of wordplay), this is the long-awaited study of Flaubert and the modern literary field that constitutes the definitive work on the sociology of art by one of the world’s leading social theorists. Drawing upon the history of literature and art from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Bourdieu develops an original theory of art conceived as an autonomous value. He argues powerfully against those who refuse to acknowledge the interconnection between art and the structures of social relations within which it is produced and received. As Bourdieu shows, art’s new autonomy is one such structure, which complicates but does not eliminate the interconnection.

The literary universe as we know it today took shape in the nineteenth century as a space set apart from the approved academies of the state. No one could any longer dictate what ought to be written or decree the canons of good taste. Recognition and consecration were produced in and through the struggle in which writers, critics, and publishers confronted one another.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804726276
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	07/01/1996
Series:	Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics Series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Pierre Bourdieu is Professor of Sociology at the Collège de France. Stanford UniversityPress has published eight other books by Bourdieu, most recently Free Exchange, with Hans Haacke (Stanford, 1995).

Table of Contents

Prologue: Flaubert, Analyst of Flaubert: A Reading of Sentimental Education.

Part I: Three States of the Field.

1. The Conquest of Autonomy: The Critical Phase in the Emergence of the Field.

2. The Emergence of a Dualist Structure.

3. The Market for Symbolic Goods.

Part II: Foundations of a Science of Works of Art.

4. Questions of Method.

5. The Author's Point of View: Some General Properties of Fields of Cultural Production.

Part III: To Understand Understanding. .

6. The Historical Genesis of the Pure Aesthetic.

7. The Social Genesis of the Eye.

8. A Theory of Reading in Practice.

Da Capo Illusion and the Illusio. .

Postscript For a Corporatism of the Universal.

Notes.

Index of Names.

Subject Index.

Editorial Reviews

" The Rules of Art is consistently interesting, sometimes enthrallingly so. It is written with a clarity not commonly encountered in French writers on art, and with an irascible authority to which Bourdieu's acuity and learning certainly entitle him."

Arthur C. Danto

"A major, pathbreaking work, The Rules of Art will stimulate theoretical debates for years to come."

Le Nouvel Observateur

"A major, pathbreaking work, The Rules of Art will stimulate theoretical debates for years to come."—Le Nouvel Observateur

"The Rules of Art is consistently interesting, sometimes enthrallingly so. It is written with a clarity not commonly encountered in French writers on art, and with an irascible authority to which Bourdieu's acuity and learning certainly entitle him."—Arthur C. Danto, Johnsonian Professor Emeritus, Columbia University

From the Publisher

"The Rules of Art is consistently interesting, sometimes enthrallingly so. It is written with a clarity not commonly encountered in French writers on art, and with an irascible authority to which Bourdieu's acuity and learning certainly entitle him."

Columbia University - Arthur C. Danto