Page 73 - Introducing Cultural Studies
P. 73
Art galleries serve
the cultivated,
privileged class;
and this privilege
is legitimized by
claiming a
distinction
between"good"
and vulgar taste,
legitimate and
illegitimate styles.
Aesthetic
judgements,
Bourdieu shows,
do not follow some
kind of objective,
autonomous
aesthetic logic -
rather, they
substitute
distinctions of
taste for class
distinctions and
therefore fortify the
divisions between
classes and
assert the right of
the ruling class to
sanction their
authority over
other classes.
Bourdieu uses an
economic
metaphor to make
this point.
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