Nathalie Heinich: Artists as an Elite. A Solution or a Problem for Democracy?

ZusammenfassungOne generation after the French Revolution, a new phenomenon appeared: writers, painters, music composers began to mix up, forming a new social category named “artists”. While often living in the margins of good society (“la vie de bohème”), for a variety of material reasons, they began to consider themselves, and to be considered by some other people, as forming a kind of elite. It thus tended to take the place of the ancient aristocracy, but without its power or fortune: innate talent would replace noble origins, whereas work and merit would match with the new post-revolutionary values, ensure the respect of equity and justice. This quite new conjunction of elitism and singularity might explain the extraordinary success of this new category onto our times – but maybe with some consequences on our value system.Nathalie Heinich, L’élite artiste. Excellence et singularité en régime démocratique (Coll. Bibliothèque des Sciences Humaines, NRF), Éditions Gallimard, 2005