Cultural Sociology’s Vistas: A Response to Thorpe’s Cultural Sociology of Cultural Representations

Cultural sociology rarely takes the long view, often being content with the comforts of presentist empirical cases. Thorpe’s wide-ranging scan of British representations of Italy from the 15th Century is a noble exception. In this review, I engage with some of Thorpe’s arguments and explain why they are important for cultural sociology. I identity three key contributions, in particular. First, the search for historical patterns and patterning; second, the conceptual gains made by bringing together Bourdieu and the strong programme of cultural sociology; and third, the critique of what Thorpe calls the “Saidian paradigm” of cultural representation. In each case, Thorpe opens up new cultural sociological vistas in imaginative ways, bringing into sharp focus the necessity of an historical cultural sociology. In the second half of the review, I offer some more critical notes, including the relative lack of attention to representational futures, and what this tells us about a Britain whose gaze is perpetually averted backwards.