Friday, 29 June 2018

Tastes in art vis-a-vis one's social class position!


In our vibrant discussion on habitus, Frederick Jameson’s take on ‘culture as second nature’, as has been rightly pointed out by Prof. Rasheeda, interpolates well here to a tee!

As ma’m has rightly opined, ‘prototype of culture’, yes, to Bourdieu, by a little further extension on the term, habitus is a form of ‘cultural capital’.

To Marx, capital formed the foundation of social life and dictated one’s position within the social order.

Taking a cue from Marx, Bourdieu quite extends Marx’s idea of capital beyond the economic into the realm of culture. He calls it cultural capital.

By cultural capital Bourdieu refers to the collection of symbolic elements such as skills, tastes, posture, clothing, mannerisms, material belongings, credentials, etc, that a person acquires through being part of a particular social class.

Sharing similar forms of cultural capital with others—the same taste in movies, for example, or a degree from a particular School or College—creates a sense of collective identity and group position.

Well, now, Habitus simply refers to the physical embodiment of this cultural capital, referring to the deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that we possess due to our life experiences.

Hence, Habitus also extends to our “taste” for cultural objects such as art, food, and clothing.

In one of his major works, Distinction, Bourdieu links French citizens’ tastes in art to their social class positions, forcefully arguing that aesthetic sensibilities are shaped by the culturally ingrained habitus.

Upper-class individuals, for example, have a taste for fine art because they have been exposed to and trained to appreciate it since a very early age, while working-class individuals have generally not had access to “high art” and thus haven’t cultivated the habitus appropriate to the fine art “game.”

In this context, Dr. Susan’s quote too comes in so lovelyyy n’ handyyy on habitus. Thank you Dr. Susan!

She’d given us this quote, “To those accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression’.

Well, how trueee! That’s again because they’ve been trained into a culturally ingrained habitus right from a very early age, to cultivating a taste meant only for the privileged and the elite!

The thing about the habitus, Bourdieu often noted, was that it was so ingrained that people often mistook the feel for the game as natural instead of culturally developed.

This often leads to justifying social inequality, because it is (mistakenly) believed that some people are naturally disposed to the finer things in life while others are not.

In this context, Catherine Belsey’s Culture and the Real would make such an interesting reading in convergence, I guess!

Two other books that would prove wonderful interpolative reads would be –

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste by Pierre Bourdieu, and 

a pretty little primer of 137 pages titled, Pierre Bourdieu by Richard Jenkins. (the latter from which I’ve used some lovely thoughts!)

They prove real valuable resourceful study guides to the legend’s thoughts!

Thanks to Prof. Rasheeda, in the first place, for prompting this lovely, delightful discussion!

image courtesy: eurekastreetdotcom

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