Chapter 1 The Conquest of Autonomy: The Critical Phase in the Emergence of the Field

Baudelaire the Founder (pp 60-68)
In this part, Bourdieu show Baudelaire and Flaubert’s alienation from the mainstream public, especially by arguing Baudelaire’s positioning almost as a heroic character that challenges the moralities of his time. Instead Baudelaire brings in his own set of moral indignations as Bourdieu says “against all forms of submission to the forces of power and to the market”. The motivation behind Baudelaire’s is to gain a degree of autonomy in literary and artistic field and as a result with his contemporaries like Flaubert, he achieves “to formulate clearly the canons of the new legitimacy” (62). By working with a small scale of publishing house, Baudelaire clearly manifests that his work (Les Fleurs du mal) is not going to be subjected to the masses but only to those who appreciate his artistic principles.
Positions and Dispositions (pp 85-87)
In this section Bourdieu argues about ambiguous positions of authors, who are champions of “art for art’s sake” and their relationship with their fathers as detrimental factor of their social trajectories. Aristocratic dispositions determine these “talented bourgeoisie” and “traditional nobility” in their alienation to “social art” by reducing them to mere merchants and facile entertainments.
Flaubert’s relationship with his father and his elder brother constitutes his social disposition and his contradictory relationship with his brother constitutes his position as an artist who is critical of bourgeois art. It’s only in the footnotes, Bourdieu compares Baudelaire’s position that is slightly different than Flaubert’s. Bourdieu claims that authors’ relationship with their male members of their family, for Flaubert his relationship with his father and elder brother, for Baudelaire his relationship with his father-in-law, became detrimental effect in their poor relationship with bourgeoisie art as well as their social position as a member of bourgeoisie. On one hand, Flaubert and his father shared a similar literary taste, unlike Baudelaire whose father-in-law looked down on his passion for literature. On the other hand, Flaubert had to compete with his elder brother, who exceeded him academically and took a path that was more acceptable in order to be considered as “successful”. Bourdieu calls Flaubert’s position as a “paternal curse” and hypothesizes that his desire to search for “pure art” comes from his conflict with his family.