The literary field between the state and the market

According to Pierre Bourdieu's analysis, the emergence of the literary field results from a historical process by which the literary activity became autonomous from different types of external constraints, related to the conditions of production. This paper gives a provisional account of these types of constraints, focusing on the French case. It is possible to class the national literary fields according to their dependence upon the State or upon the market. In authoritarian regimes, the State is an instrument of control put at the service of an ideological system. The ideological demand determines the supply of cultural goods. It implies a strict regulation of economic exchanges, a centralisation of the means of production and consecration. The liberalization of the bookmarket has favoured the literary field's relative liberation from State control. But the market has also constraints of its own, mainly profit, which encloses, for literature, the risk of standardization. During the 19th Century, writers claimed for the autonomy of literary recognition, that must be grounded on aesthetical judgments and not on sales. In France, the State progressively became committed to help literary activities preserve a certain degree of autonomy from the market. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.