Abstract
Pierre Bourdieu's investigation into the mechanism of power relations in any given society emphasizes that culture is firmly embedded in social lives of agents. An agent engages in some social competitions, struggling with others and his or her own limits. Applying the metaphor of game to social life, Bourdieu believes that people, in order to accumulate more capitals, participate in intense social competitions. Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf raises some questions about the nature of power, language, and their intersection. The lives of the characters are not far removed from how they experience power relations in a college campus, a microcosm of American society. Putting into practice Bourdieu's theory of practice, this article analyzes the influence of the accumulation of capitals in the lives of George and Martha, the role of the imaginary child as a part of American dream and its significance to the couple's lives, and ultimately the use and abuse of language in their ways of communication.
Highlights
To attribute Pierre Bourdieu a single field of study proves impossible
Applying the metaphor of "game" to social life, Bourdieu believes that people participate in intense competitions: constraints and demands of the game, they are not restricted to a code of rules, impose themselves on those people—and those people alone—who, because they have a feel for the game, a feel, that is, for the immanent necessity of the game, are prepared to perceive them and carry them out. (Bourdieu 1990: 63)
This article includes a brief introduction to the major concepts of Bourdieu's theory of practice such as habitus, field, cultural capital, bodily hexis and symbolic power
Summary
To attribute Pierre Bourdieu a single field of study proves impossible. Though he is mostly regarded as a sociologist of culture, he made substantial contributions to a broad range of fields including philosophy, sociology, anthropology, politics, culture and literary theory. This article includes a brief introduction to the major concepts of Bourdieu's theory of practice such as habitus, field, cultural capital, bodily hexis and symbolic power. Defining capital as "accumulated labor," he extends the concept of capital and speaks of its four generic types: economic (e.g., money and property), cultural (e.g., information, knowledge, and credentials), social (e.g., acquaintances and networks), and symbolic (e.g., legitimation, prestige, and authority) (Bourdieu 1986: 241). By seeking the social construction of the bodily appearance, women create gendered forms of cultural capital and in effect redefine "the legitimate image of femininity" (Bourdieu 1984: 153). Women, through their charm and beauty, become an object through which men gather more capital. When we use language, we do so as individuals with specific social and cultural histories
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