"Dashed Hopes and Good Intentions": A Bourdieuian Reading of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• Authors: Ebrahim Salimi-Kouchi , Mohsen Rezaeian
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Pierre Bourdieu's investigation into the mechanism of power relations in any given society emphasizes that culture is firmly embedded in social lives of agents. An agent engages in some social competitions, struggling with others and his or her own limits. Applying the metaphor of "game" to social life, Bourdieu believes that people, in order to accumulate more capitals, participate in intense social competitions. Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf raises some questions about the nature of power, language, and their intersection. The lives of the characters are not far removed from how they experience power relations in a college campus, a microcosm of American society. Putting into practice Bourdieu's theory of practice, this article analyzes the influence of the accumulation of capitals in the lives of George and Martha, the role of the imaginary child as a part of American dream and its significance to the couple's lives, and ultimately the use and abuse of language in their ways of communication.

DE

Der Band enthält die Abstracts ausschließlich in englischer Sprache.

FR

Le numéro contient uniquement les résumés en anglais.

RU

Том не содержит аннотаций на английском языке.

Keywords

EN

Bourdieu; Albee; habitus; field; capital; imaginary son; American Dream; language

DE

Bourdieus Theorie; Edward Albee

FR

théorie de Bourdieu; Edward Albee

RU

теория Бурдье; Эдвард Олби

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 2

Dates

published

2015

online

2016-03-31

Contributors

author

Ebrahim Salimi-Kouchi

author

Mohsen Rezaeian

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.17951/lsmll.2015.39.2.50