Reflection upon Bourdieu’s Cultural Sociology: a Case Study of the Development History of Peking Opera

• In Event: 30283 - Cultural Mechanisms of Inequality

Abstract

This critical theoretical analysis examines Bourdieu’s theory of cultural distinction through the empirical lens of Peking Opera’s historical development. While Bourdieu’s analysis of art as a field structured by class-based power dynamics has been immensely influential, I argue that his framework requires careful interpretation to address common misunderstandings, and combination with other theoretical frameworks to better account for cultural social phenomena. Drawing on historical documentation of Peking Opera’s evolution and its transformation into Model Opera during the Cultural Revolution, I support Bourdieu’s arguments with empirical evidence as well as identify theoretical tensions: first, Bourdieu’s innovative introduction of class analysis into aesthetics greatly contributed to the cultural sociology discipline, but it also exhibited a reductionist tendency and made a too radical inherent association between classes and tastes. The popularity of Peking Opera served as a counter example. Negligence of pure aesthetic value will probably lead to artistic nihilism and essentially a justification of existing systematical deprivation, which degrades the discussion of art to pragmatic power relationships and ignores the spiritual alienation suffered by the working class; second, as Bourdieu proposed but not fully developed, the “working-class art” (especially when created by the state for political purposes, like the Model Opera) is a secondary pseudo-art which reflects the cultural deprivation; last, the common misunderstandings (and self-inconsistency) of Bourdieu’s cultural sociology derived from the contradiction between his analytical focus on power relations and his theoretical commitment to Kantian aesthetics and opposition to cultural relativism. By incorporating Kantian aesthetics and Marcuse’s theory of art’s liberating potential, I develop a theoretical synthesis that better accounts for both Bourdieu’s recognition of aesthetic autonomy and his critique of class-based cultural domination. This reformulation helps resolve common misinterpretations of Bourdieu’s work while extending his analysis to state-directed cultural production.

Author

• Wanting Wang, University of Pennsylvania