“Sketch for a Self-Analysis” : Self-Reflexivity in Bourdieu’s Approach to Literature

Abstract

The chapter explores how the pivotal role Pierre Bourdieu ascribes to self-reflexivity, in his theorisation of research in the social sciences and humanities, plays out in his theory of the literary field. According to Bourdieu, the concept of self-reflexivity is the most powerful methodological tool against the "scholastic point of view" typical of the academe, which imputes its own social logic to any object studied and is unable to account for the "practical logic" governing other social fields. A truly self-reflexive research should take into account the relation of the scholar to the social space, to the specific scholarly field in question and to the general conditions of the scholastic point of view. After an outline of Bourdieu's concept of self-reflexivity the chapter turns to the book The Rules of Art (1992) and asks how the general theoretical framework of self-reflexivity fits into the theory of the literary field.