Reading Mexican Mestizaje and Carlos Fuentes Through Bourdieu

Abstract

This chapter uses the foundation of Bourdieu’s sociology of culture and specifically the concepts of habitus, illusio, autonomy, and literary field to study the impact of Carlos Fuentes on Mexican literature in the second half of the twentieth century. It also argues for the importance of a sociological approach to the study of literature, which makes it possible to treat the writings not as isolated works of genius but as part of a cultural practice. Regarding Fuentes and the post-revolutionary state, the chapter focuses on the idea of “Mexicanness” and how the biopolitics of the concept was deeply ingrained in the construction of a modern state. Illusio, Bourdieu’s concept, is here applied to think about the state outside of the conceptual framework that the state itself creates in order to exist and be able to “invent a sense of community and belonging”.