The reinvention of symbolism: a critical view of the relationship between East and West in the Postcolonial Era

Abstract

For Bourdieu, the social world is objectively presented as a symbolic space which is organized according to the logic of difference. Culture is the sphere where the social inequalities are naturalized and represented, but, at the same time, it is the means through which the different subordinate groups live and resist to that subordination. Thus, it constitutes the arena where the fight for the hegemony takes place. From reflections concerning the concepts of ideology, speech and identity, this work considers to analyze the way Salman Rushdie’ s discursive practice collaborates for the identitary formation of a cosmopolitan and migrant subject who is critical of the ideologies that advocate fixed subjective positions, based on traditional models of identitary configuration.

Keywords: Migration, ideology, discourse, identity