New books appearing in English

Seven years after Bourdieu’s death, two original works of his are finally about to appear in English.

The first one ist Sketch for a Self-Analysis, which has been around in German* and French for a while:

‘This is not an autobiography.’ – Pierre Bourdieu. Pierre Bourdieu’s commitment to a reflexive sociology led him ineluctably to take on the final challenge of a self socio-analysis in which he recounts and analyses, more fully and intimately than ever before, his understanding of the trajectory that led him from the peasant world of Barn, through sometimes painful years as a lyce boarder, as a student in 1950s Paris and as a conscript in the Algerian War, to the pinnacle of the French intellectual and academic world. ‘This is not an autobiography’, he said of this work but it reveals much of the hitherto implicit experience of his formative years, and gives precious insights into his relationships with Jean-Paul Sartre, Raymond Aron, Michel Foucault and many others, which deepen our understanding of his unique contribution to sociology and anthropology.

And the other is The Bachelor’s Ball. This one hasn’t appeared in any other language than French yet, and Bourdieu himself didn’t really approve of it being translated (look for the reason in Sketch for a Self-Analysis)

Continuing the theme of self-reflection, Bourdieu’s final book, “The Bachelors’ Ball”, sees him return to Bearn, the village where he grew up, to examine the gender dynamics of rural France. This personal connection adds poignancy to Bourdieu’s ethnographic account of the way the influence of urban values has precipitated a crisis for male peasants. Tied to the land through inheritance, these bachelors find themselves with little to offer the women of Bearn who, like the young Bourdieu himself, abandon the country for the city in droves.

This one has also just appeared in German, by the way.

*Interestingly, this book was first published in German by Suhrkamp in 2002, shortly after his death. It only appeared in French two years later. This was Bourdieu’s own choice: He hoped that the german public would be less emotional than the french scientific and cultural scene and that, the scientific content of the book would get more attention than its purely personal aspects. The book consists of a greatly enlarged version of his last lecture at the Collège de France, which was published as the last chapter of Science of Science and Reflexivity.