The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Criticism

During the past two decades sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has emerged as a dominant force in cultural studies through his lucid analysis of every field of cultural activity from tastes in music and art to choices in food and lifestyles. The Field of Cultural Production brings together Bourdieu's major essays on art and literature and provides the first introduction to his writings and theory of a cultural field that situates artistic works within the social conditions of their production, circulation, and consumption. Bourdieu addresses many of the issues that have consumed literary, art, and cultural criticism over the past decade: aesthetic value and canonicity, intertextuality, the institutional frameworks of cultural practice, the social role of intellectuals and artists, and structures of literary and artistic authority.