On Bourdiou's Literary Field Theory

As one of the most prominent thinkers of the contemporary France, Bourdieu has developed many thoughts that have influenced the whole world profoundly, such as capital theory, field theory, and so on, therefore, it is significant to analyse him. The main purpose of this thesis is to introduce his concept of field and the theory of literary field, on the basis of which the paper is going to interpret the contemporary literary field of China. As a result, the body of the passage consists of five parts, with the prefatory notes and epilogue included.The prefatory note mainly introduces Bourdieu's life and the general sources and background of his thoughts, as well as delivers a brief introduction of the domestic and overseas situation of researches on him.The first chapter puts the stress on the introduction of the field theory. The concept of field is undoubtedly one of the contributing theoretical tools promoted by Bourdieu. Field is intended to designate a net or formation of the objective relationships existing among various positions. There lies a closely bounded logic relationship among the concept of field and three other concepts which are:practice, habitus and capital,what's more,any of them can be used for explaining another. The main characteristics of field are the following points:firstly, the obscurity of the boundaries;secondly, the competitiveness;thirdly, the autonomy; fourthly,the homology.The second chapter is concentrated in his literary field theory. In the social dimension, the construction of the autonomy of the literary field is a historical procedure,which consists of a double structures,and signifies a possession of symbolic wealth or symbolic capital.In the work's dimension, the perspective of literary field focus on the combination of the inward and outward researches;in the author's dimension, Bourdieu has deconsecrated the author in a literary field perspective, so as to restore a role of provocative agent who is struggling for all kinds of capital;in the reader's dimension,the readers of the literary field are also the competitors struggling for the cultural capital,which means an important influence on the value of literary field.In a nutshell, Bourdieu's literary field theory, in which there lie some insufficiencies,has provided a new way to treat literature.The third chapter discusses the situation of the contemporary literary field of China. First, the heteronymous situation of the pre-modern literary field has been introduced briefly, the main points of which are on the relationship of literary field and political field and the functions on the literary field which are imposed by the civilian institutions;and then, the thesis analyzes the transformation of modern literary field of China, namely the procedure from heteronomy to autonomy, which delineates the situation of the contending and politically nervous age, and explains the following situation of the construction of autonomous literary field; finally, it has analyzed the complicated influence on the literary field, which is imposed by economics and new media, and provided some thoughts on the future of the literary field of China.The epilogue once again depicts the contributions of Bourdieu, and explains the insufficiencies of the research.