Bourdieu's Biographical Illusion: An Interpretive Reading
Pierre Bourdieu’s short essay „The Biographical Illusion” (1987) is one of the most well-known critiques of biography as a method of research. To Bourdieu, a sociologist famous for his contributions to social theory (his typology of capital and his concept of social fields are wildly influential), the immediate point of view on biography is on that as a method of social-scientific research, and of ethnography (e.g., interviews). Nevertheless, the short essay does provide some insights, some points worthy of reflection. Amusingly, at least to me, not as much to the method of biography, but to sociological views on anthroponomastics, the study of human names. What follows is a reflection on what piqued my interest, an interpretive, not a hermeneutic reading. I. When we speak of human life, it is never devoid of its own historicity. Human beings are situated in time: they experience, and they reflect on their experiences. And, most relevantly, they narrate these lives to ...