The present study aims at reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement according to Pierre Bourdieu’s (1930-2002) theory of class distinction. The novel depicts the society as a field in which autonomous forces function. The characters can be considered as agents of society whose strategic interactions define their social aspects. In the other words, they are affected by the power in society which can be transferred through what Bourdieu calls ‘habitus’. According to him, habitus refers to an individual system through which the subject sees the surrounding society. What affects this system is mostly the social background of the subject during his life. Accordingly, different and distinct social classes with their own unique capital and taste are shaped. Atonement depicts how two opposite poles symbolically reflected between Robbie’s and Cecilia’s intimacy fail to attract each other in the social field by different habitus of distinct social classes. The study attempts to account for different forces that have affected characters’ habitus and distinct classes. پرونده مقاله

This research is an attempt to shed light on the issues related to the mechanism of power and its sociological implications in David Mamet’s Edmond based on Michel Foucault’s point of view. Power is present everywhere, and it is something that operates in the form of a network. In this regard, the modern form power described as disciplinary power differs from the negative ruling power that focuses on deduction and torture. In Edmond, individuals try to exercise their power by advancing their knowledge as a new discourse to diminish other previous discourses. The society in which Edmond enters to reach happiness is a place where he is trapped into the disciplinary power of panopticism. The disciplinary power controls individuals and constructs their identities. Their identities are constructed by the socio-cultural environment; therefore, they become docile bodies and subject to power relations by means of normalization and constant surveillance. The result shows that any deviation from the norms, punishment is exercised on the individuals’ souls and subsequently shapes their bodies as well. پرونده مقاله