This thesis examines the social politics of literary production at
London's Inns of Court from 1572 to 1634. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of
cultural production are widened beyond his own French academic context so
that the Inns may be located as institutions central to the formation of literary
and, in particular, dramatic culture in early modern London.
A significant part of Bourdieu's research has concerned the
establishment of a foundation for a sociological analysis of literary works. The
literary field, Bourdieu argues, is but one of many possible fields of cultural
production—social networks of struggle over valued economic, cultural,
scientific, or religious resources. As a historically constituted arena of activity
with its own specific institutions, rules, and capital, the juridical field of early
modern London was a competitive market in which legal agents struggled for
the power to determine the law. Within this field, the Inns of Court served as
unchartered law schools in which the valuable cultural currency of the
common law was transmitted to the resident students, whose association
with this currency was crucial for their pursuit of social prestige.
Focusing on the four Inns of Court as central institutions in the
juridical field and their relationship with the larger political and economic
forces of London, that is, the field of power, the thesis demonstrates how the
literary art associated with these institutions relates to the students' struggle
for social legitimation, particularly in their interaction with the City and the
Crown. By demonstrating how the structures of literary texts reflect the
structures of the relationship between the Inns and other centers of urban
power, this analysis examines the pivotal role(s) played by law students in the
development of London's literary culture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/10139 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Whitted, Brent Edward |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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