Critical capital: cultural studies, the critical disposition and critical reading as elite practice

Abstract

In Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu famously proposes the concept of an ‘aesthetic disposition’: a capacity to conceive the world in terms of form rather than function. Acquired through education, this disposition serves as a key marker of cultural privilege. Building on subsequent critical discussions regarding the applicability of aesthetic disposition (or lack of) beyond Bourdieu’s own context, I argue that in the contemporary cultural context, formal appreciation has been supplanted by critical reading as a marker of a privileged and educated orientation towards culture and that this ‘critical disposition’ is directly relevant to the project of cultural studies. Addressing the importance of critical reading in new venues of cultural criticism, I argue that the elevation of critical over formal orientations towards culture speaks to the success of certain forms of cultural studies, but also threatens to associate critique with privilege in ways that undercut its emancipatory promise.