Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 13:11:48 -0800 (PST) From: <harrawoo-AT-violet.berkeley.edu> Subject: Power and agon: a query This is a question I want to ask the list re an earlier discussion of B's account of power and of empowerment. This a question from outside the field. I'm interested in how certain literary critics use Bourdieu to make social claims about sixteenth century literature, Shakespeare in particular. Is it the case that the Bourdieuvian account of power is always something that moves from the inside out? In other words, to paraphrase an earlier post, is it always only a power that influences or dominates, but never one that empowers? Is there an account given in Bourdieu's work, or in the studies it has generated, about what it _feels like_ to feel oneself to be empowered? Two moments in _Distinction_ stick out in my mind. First, there's the guy who eats all the beans in the section on tast in the lower classes, which he calls "The Choice of the Necessary." While most of the chapter is concerned with the lines of social dominance that lead to the poor's choice of beans, is there any way to get a sense of how that choice -- deciding that you _really_ like beans -- somehow also empowers the dominated? The other moment is the reflection on the Autodidact, who, Bourdieu says, can never accumulate enough learning to acquire the sense of validation that institutions of learning are in the buisness of confering. It seems to me that there's a sudden shift here, where Bourdieu moves from his data and makes a reflection about what the Autodidact is feeling -- and that this move is really something of a jump for Bourdieu, since his data don't really give him any real basis for an alanysis of the internal thoughts of the person. I'm interested in this because of the prominence Bourdieu and the social sciences have gained in literary scholarship over the last few years. I hope somebody out there can help me with this. Michael Harrawood ********************************************************************** Contributions: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Commands: majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Requests: bourdieu-approval-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
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