National Figurations under Hysteresis in Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu. From Plural to Cleft National Habitus

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

The paper proposes to expand the Eliasian concept of national habitus through the Bourdieusian studies of social habitus. It will be argued that the dynamic relationship between the national habitus and the state norms is always characterized by certain hysteresis, the difference across specific national contexts being its range: from small-scale, almost imperceptible forms, to radical, traumatic disjunctures. Inherently plural character of national habitus postulated in this article does not presuppose that plural dispositions are incorporated in the we-image of the nationals. On the contrary, the case of inner normative antagonism in national dispositions will be exemplified by cleft national habitus—modeled on cleft habitus described by Bourdieu in a class context, where a quest toward purification of plural habitus becomes ideologically crucial in national identity-building. The latter occurs in response to strong hysteresis in national figuration and is reproduced through Don Quixote effect dislocating the national experience of social time. Further contextualization of quixotic strategies will be made through the reading of two complementary works exploring the drag effects of habitus in community building and restructuring: The Bachelors’ Ball. The Crisis of Peasant Society in Béarn by Bourdieu and The Established and the Outsiders by Elias and Scotson.