A new approach to literary illustration during the interwar period in France, combining Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of fields and art history

This work-in-progress communication outlines the current status of a research program dealing with literary illustration during the interwar period in France. This research is innovative by two features. It employs a new approach, combining art history and the theory of fields of Pierre Bourdieu. Its aim, also, is to provide a global heuristic model of this artistic practice, both theoretical and experimental. We will have a quick look at the key-point of this work, the Bourdieusian structure of the field of literary illustration during the interwar period. We will shortly explain the bases of the model and we will overview its main features, addressing subjects such as the pictorial forms of the illustrations, the choice between black and white or colors for the images or the relationships between illustrations and texts. Finally, we will briefly discuss the uses of this heuristic tool, referring to some case-studies. The next steps of this research program will be presented.