The aesthetics of diaspora in colonial fields of power : elite nationalism, art and the love to die for

Johnson, Mark

Abstract

This paper explores the conditions of cultural production that enabled the invention of the Philippine nation from afar among literary and artistic diasporan elites in the metropolitan centres of Europe in the late nineteenth century. I draw together Bourdieu's analysis of the creation of the autonomous field of cultural production and Anderson's analysis of the origins of nationalism to demonstrate how affective and aesthetic investments in art and the nation enabled historically one group of people – the ilustrado (elite Filipino nationalist) – to overcome and exchange the estrangement and humiliations of race for national belonging and recognition in colonial fields of power. Doing so critically extends Bourdieu, moving beyond his methodological nationalism to foreground the racial hierarchies embedded in the making of the classed habitus and situate the aesthetics of diaspora within a translocal field of distinction.

Citation

Johnson, M. (2013). The aesthetics of diaspora in colonial fields of power : elite nationalism, art and the love to die for. Ethnos, 78(2), 175-199. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2012.672334

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jan 25, 2013
• Publication Date: 2013-06
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Ethnos
• Print ISSN: 0014-1844
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 78
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 175-199
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2012.672334
• Keywords: Aesthetic theory; Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. (Benedict Richard O'Gorman), 1936- ; Bourdieu, Pierre, 1930-2002; Colonialism; Diaspora; Filipinos; Nationalism, Race; Rizal, José, 1861-1896; Methodological nationalism
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/466184
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00141844.2012.672334
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Ethnos on 25 Jan 2013, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00141844.2012.672334
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014