Reconsidering Cultural Representation with Field Theory: Continuity and Change in the Discursive Construction of Italy and the Italians in England from 1680 to 1830

Abstract

This article demonstrates the comparative merits of Bourdieu’s field theory, as opposed to the composite theoretical model set out in Edward Said’s Orientalism specifically and critical normative approaches to theorizing constructions of otherness more generally, as the basis for a more analytically differentiated account of cultural representation. Crucially, one capable of acknowledging the generative effects negative constructions of the other have for informing the contexts in which positive constructions arise and how the interplay of both negative and positive discursive constructions inform continuity and change in the discursive representation of the cultural other over time. Drawing on secondary historical data relating to discursive representations of Italy and the Italians in England during the period 1680 to 1830, the argument is made that both negative and positive discourses of Italy and the Italians arise out of and inform relations of conflict and cohesion conjoining agents at an intra-, as opposed to inter-, cultural level. It is the variable conditions of fields which determine agents’ dispositions towards representing the other either negatively and or positively. The article concludes by reflecting on the limits of the ‘Saidian’ legacy for theorizing cultural representation and calls for the analytical significance of positive constructions of the other to be further problematized and explored.