Yet, Bourdieu's data and cogent analysis seem to confirm the comparison.įirst published in 1979 in French, Distinction is based on an extensive survey of 1,217 adults from a variety of social backgrounds, careers, and levels of education. The notion that Jacques-Louis David and Pollock could share the same audience seemed laughable at the time. The intended audiences were the elite and hyper-educated. "Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier."ĭistinction was recommended to me by a professor who made the argument that abstract art and neoclassicism had essentially the same goals and audience: both genres were far-removed from reality and steeped in symbolic messages. So, when the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu published Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, he was considered an elitist snob. education, wealth, social connections) seems patronizing at best. But claiming a preference for Bach or Bruce Springsteen can be directly correlated with one's social status (e.g. It is no surprise that taste and knowledge sometimes go hand in hand.
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