A1 Journal article (refereed)
Crossing the magical barriers of art : Social class, authorship and capital in the contemporary Finnish literary field (2019)

Roiha, T. (2019). Crossing the magical barriers of art : Social class, authorship and capital in the contemporary Finnish literary field. Nordisk Kulturpolitisk Tidskrift, 22(1), 50-71. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn2000-8325-2019-01-04

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Roiha, Taija

Journal or series: Nordisk Kulturpolitisk Tidskrift

ISSN: 1403-3216

eISSN: 2000-8325

Publication year: 2019

Volume: 22

Issue number: 1

Pages range: 50-71

Publisher: Högskolan i Borås

Publication country: Sweden

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn2000-8325-2019-01-04

Persistent website address: https://www.idunn.no/nkt/2019/01/crossing_the_magical_barriers_of_art_social_class_authors?languageId=2

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/65822

Abstract

This article examines how social class origin is experienced to affect the trajectories of becoming and being an author in the context of the contemporary Finnish literary field. It analyzes authors’ experiences of social class, artistic work and authorship in a theoretical framework that draws from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Beverley Skeggs, particularly the concepts of economic and cultural capital, habitus and inscription. Social class origin is argued to be a relevant factor that affects the ways authorship is pursued even in a country, such as Finland, where artistic labor is relatively well supported by the public sector. The results show that authors from upper middle-class, academic middle-class and cultural families generally felt themselves safe to pursue the risky profession of authorship. Authors from lower middle-class and working-class origins often experienced feelings of outsiderness and not-belonging, as their personal habitus was considered to be “out of sync” with the literary field. The empirical research material of this article consists of authors’ written experiences of artistic work, social class and gender. The data were collected in 2018 and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Keywords: authors; authorship (literary); artistic work; societal status; financial status; cultural capital (social assets); social background; social classes

Free keywords: artistic work; authorship; cultural capital; economic capital; literary field; social class

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2019

JUFO rating: 1