The Narcissism of “Libido Academica”

Pierre Bourdieu, one of the most important figure of modern sociology has written two texts entitled Male Domination, both of which are translated into Hungarian. The first appeared as an article in Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales in 1990; the second was published as a little book in 1998. Male domination, argues Bourdieu in these texts, is not only a universal phenomenon but also the model of all type of domination. The book further radicalizes this position by stating that the unequal power relation between man and woman has basically not changed in modern societies. Miklós Hadas, the author of this review essay, compares the two publications and criticizes Bourdieu’s argument. The French sociologist, writes Hadas, practically ignores the huge sociological literature on genders and rests content with referring only to his own earlier works. The reviewer also points out to several weaknesses of the Hungarian translation of Bourdieu’s book.