PROVERBS, SYMBOLIC CAPITAL, AND SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE A BOURDIEUSIAN SURVEY OF PAREMIOLOGY

Аннотация

This article applies the fundamentals of Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Theory to the analysis of the use of proverbs in communication. According to the French sociologist, human interactions are determined by the symbolic capital held by participants in these interactions. Regarding proverbs, their anonymity and folkloric nature adds to their symbolic capital, motivating their use as a communication device believed to grant the speaker an argumentative advantage. This paper, in addition to repositioning proverbs within the Bourdieusian dichotomy of doxa and habitus, analyzes how certain proverbial uses may result in what Bourdieu termed “symbolic violence.” To prove this, and after noticing a relatively frequent use of proverbs by Elon Musk on his Twitter/X account, a search for proverbial uses that could be considered aggressive was conducted to demonstrate how such proverbial references may exemplify Bourdieu’s concept of ‘symbolic violence.’