Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 01:36:06 -0600 (MDT) From: "Raymond V. Liedka" <liedka-AT-unm.edu> Subject: Re: bourdieu-digest V1 #270 On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Jon Beasley-Murray wrote: > A friend and colleague of mine, Jeremy Lane, is writing a book more or > less on this topic--and a very good book it will be. > > (Lane opens, incidentally, with a discussion of the fascinating and > interwoven set of receptions that Bourdieu has had--praised as a Marxist > as well as condemned as a Marxist; praised as an anti-Marxist as well as > condemned as an anti-Marxist; praised as a postmodernist as well as > condemned as a postmodernist; etc. etc. as well as all imaginable > combinations... certainly all things to all men; no doubt this is part of > his appeal, in which case he shouldn't be forever complaining about how > he's misread... it's merely a sign that he's being read at all.) > Or merely a sign that B is, in crucial places, ambiguous and imprecise and contradictory. I have approached his work from mainstream American sociology, and I have found much of his work a re-statement of themes that are traceable to Max Weber, but re-stated in language that more closely resembles Marxist terminology. Perhaps this "restatement in a new language" is more prevalent in the wider body of B's work, and it leads to the "all things to all people" aspect. > While this means abandoning the fidelity to the master shown by some on > this list (and also means perhaps abandoning even the question of "what > does Bourdieu really think?"), this doesn't concern me overmuch. > Agreed....the best lesson I ever received on reading the work of another was this -- "Take what is useful to you in getting on with your own work" -- which could have been easily followed by "and damnation to those who feel you've somehow sinned." ray Raymond V. Liedka Assistant Professor Department of Sociology University of New Mexico ********************************************************************** 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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