“场域”视野下《美丽与毁灭》中的“消费场”

An Analysis on the Consumer Field in the Beautiful and Damned

美国作家菲茨杰拉德的小说《美丽与毁灭》对二十世纪初兴起的消费社会和消费现象给予了高度关注。本文借助布迪厄的场域理论,分析了小说"消费场"中资本分布和惯习对消费行为的影响。可以看出,经济资本直接影响消费行为和消费水平,而惯习则间接引领消费的实践活动。论文通过这一剖析,展现了小说中人物间的利益冲突和斗争,证明了在有着多重斗争和利益冲突的消费场中,上层阶级寄希望通过消费来维持自己的身份以及下层阶级期盼通过消费来进行身份建构的愿望是不可行的。

The Beautiful and Damned written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the American novelist, pays great attention to the consumer society and consumption phenomenon in the turn of twentieth century. This paper analyzes the effects of capital distribution and habitus in consumer field to consumer activities. It is observed that economic capital directly affect consumer behavior and consumption level, whereas habitus lead consumption practices indirectly. Through this analysis, the conflict of interest and struggle in the consumer field of this novel is presented. In addition, it also proves that it is not going to work neither the upper class hope maintain their identities through consumption nor the lower class constructed identities through the same way in this complicated consumer field.