HABITUS - FROM THE INSIDE-OUT AND THE OUTSIDE IN

Examinations of the body have been productive sites for analyzing aspe cts of contemporary culture in general and issues of identity/differen ce in particular. They have also become battlegrounds for position-cla iming within both the public arena and disciplinary practices, that is , bodies claimed in/for/of x discipline. I believe it would be more pr oductive if, in the future, we were to begin to examine bodies in rela tion to power regimes instead. Bodies-and art-have been found to occup y the middle ground, the space between disciplines, between the 'alrea dy given or said' in everyday life and knowledge alike. I have found n avigational assistance for the spaces 'in between' in Bourdieu's socio logy, especially his concepts of the field and habitus. This paper is an articulation of my present position-that of an itinerant academic-a nd my presentational/rhetorical strategies reflect my appropriation of the canonical texts of the field, tempered by the disposition of one desirous of occupying a 'social space' within the academic 'field' and 'the functioning ethos' of feminist politics. My narrative can be rea d as a feminist 'take' on Bourdieu and a presentation of interdiscipli narity as social practice. It can also be read as a demonstration of a 'habitus' at work, or as a practice of writing the body.