Pierre Bourdieu was born in Denguin, in the Béarn area of France, the son of a civil servant. His intellectual journey was to take him from philosophy to anthropology to social science, a journey which was infused with a strong sense of political commitment and a wide range of cultural interests. Not only literature but art, photography, television, journalism, access to museums and art galleries, the funding of the arts, problems of aesthetic taste all come within his brief. In short, Bourdieu was something of a polymath.
Soon after achieving his agrégation in philosophy, Bourdieu was conscripted into the army and served from 1956-8 in Algeria, then a French colony. This experience was both politically and …
2490 words
Citation: Eagleton, Mary. "Pierre Bourdieu". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 December 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=501, accessed 23 November 2024.]
