File spoon-archives/bourdieu.archive/bourdieu_1999/bourdieu.9903, message 35


Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 16:57:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Brent E Whitted <whitted-AT-interchange.ubc.ca>
Subject: Bourdieu and the common law



Now that my doctoral dissertation is nearly complete, I though I should
let the people on this list know what I am up to. Basically, I'm using
Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, and capital to explain the
situation of the Inns of Court in the broader field of power of early
modern London, and how the literary activity associated with the Inns
functions as a product of the interaction between lawyers (law students in
particular) and institutions outside the field of juridical
production--the court, the city authorites, and the theatres. Here's an
abstract (feedback is very welcome):

The literary culture of the Inns of Court, 1572 - 1634

	This dissertation examines the social politics of literary
production at London's Inns of Court from 1572 to 1634. By illustrating
the wider applicability of Bourdieu's concepts of cultural production
beyond his own French academic context, I locate the Inns as institutions
central (rather than peripheral) to the formation of literary culture in
early modern London.
	In his studies of the interconnection between art and the
structure of the social relations of its production and reception,
Bourdieu has proposed fields of cultural production as social networks of
struggle over valued economic, cultural, scientific, or religious
resources. As an historically constituted arena of activity with its
specific institutions, rules, and interest, the juridical field of early
modern London was a competitive market in which the law students struggled
for social legitimation through their association with the Inns of Court.
The Inns were unchartered law schools in which valuable cultural currency
(the common law and its social magic as a power resource) was transmitted
to the students who resided there.
	Concentrating on the four Inns of Court (as the pivotal
institutions of the juridical field) and their relationship with the
larger political and economic forces of London (the field of power), I
examine how the literary art of the Inns' residents relates to their
struggle for social legitimation, particularly in their interaction with
the City of London and the court. By examining how the structures of these
texts reflect the structures of the relationship between the Inns and
other centres of urban power, this dissertation reshapes our understanding
of the pivotal role(s) played by law students in the development of
London's literary culture.


Brent Whitted
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of English
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z1
(604) 224-0455


**********************************************************************
Contributions: bourdieu-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Commands: majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
Requests: bourdieu-approval-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005