When you locate your copy of , start with the Introduction written by Randal Johnson. Johnson’s introduction is arguably the clearest entry point into Bourdieu’s slippery vocabulary. From there, read Essay 1, "The Field of Cultural Production," before tackling the more specific studies of Flaubert or Manet.
Critics (e.g., Harold Bloom, Jacques Rancière) argue that Bourdieu reduces aesthetic innovation to a struggle for social position. Where is the space for genuine, unsocialized creativity? the field of cultural production bourdieu pdf
Though more fully developed in Distinction , habitus appears here as the "internalized" disposition that artists and writers acquire from their background and training. It explains why people from similar social origins tend to produce and prefer similar kinds of art. When you locate your copy of , start