Habitus
After a harsh and terrible journey into the depths of Bourdieu's habitus, I conclude that habitus is what makes you you. The aspects in life that shapes who you are. It affects the things you do, the things you know, and the way you see things. Therefore, it affects my writing.
As a writer, my habitus plays a huge role in what I write. They say to write what you know, to draw from your own experiences so your story is more realistic. Growing up in Malaysia, a multicultural South East Asia country, defines what I know and what I am interested in. It dictates the way I see the world. Despite writing mostly fiction, the words I pour out reflect the words I consume. I could try extremely hard to erase my knowledge of my home country, but try as I may, my influences and perceptions are innate, and will seep through the filters. As mentioned before, habitus is affected by where I grew up in; the class, family, culture etc. Naturally, it establishes my creative process - how I write. Since young, my parents use mind maps to teach me, it developed over time, and now, I often brainstorm a story with mind maps. Prior to discovering my creative process, I've tried multiple methods from the internet and still, the one that worked the best is the one I've been taught by the people closest to me.
I notice that my upbringing influences my writing, my stories often have family relationships as an important aspect. I think it's because I grew up in a family-oriented space. One where my family would drive to my grandparent's house for dinner at least once a week. I have movie nights with my family, I share the same room as my sister and eating together as a family is important. My upbringing sneaks its way into my stories and I find that my characters often have either a good relationship with their family or want to get closer to them.
Ask any Malaysians about their country and they would tell you that the food is amazing there. Food is a huge part of our lives, we have 24/7 mamak that caters to our late night cravings. I notice that I mention food in most of my stories and I've written multiple stories surrounding food. I thought it was a phase because I was watching MasterChef or some food anime, but I realise that it could very well be because of Malaysian's love for food.
In class, we discussed the possibility of habitus mutating and I can say that it does. Prior to moving to Australia for studies, I wrote nothing related to Asian culture or Malaysia. I was using the knowledge I obtained from consuming a vast amount of American content to write. The pride Australians have for their local creators inspire me to look into my own culture. Somehow that thought never crossed my mine, I never thought my culture was interesting, but it seems like I just never really looked.
I always thought that my works come from me alone. Yes, it does come from my own mind but my thoughts and ideas are all influenced by habitus. What I find interesting is that habitus can change, it can develop as I interact with other habitus. And I think that makes people unique.
As a writer, my habitus plays a huge role in what I write. They say to write what you know, to draw from your own experiences so your story is more realistic. Growing up in Malaysia, a multicultural South East Asia country, defines what I know and what I am interested in. It dictates the way I see the world. Despite writing mostly fiction, the words I pour out reflect the words I consume. I could try extremely hard to erase my knowledge of my home country, but try as I may, my influences and perceptions are innate, and will seep through the filters. As mentioned before, habitus is affected by where I grew up in; the class, family, culture etc. Naturally, it establishes my creative process - how I write. Since young, my parents use mind maps to teach me, it developed over time, and now, I often brainstorm a story with mind maps. Prior to discovering my creative process, I've tried multiple methods from the internet and still, the one that worked the best is the one I've been taught by the people closest to me.
I notice that my upbringing influences my writing, my stories often have family relationships as an important aspect. I think it's because I grew up in a family-oriented space. One where my family would drive to my grandparent's house for dinner at least once a week. I have movie nights with my family, I share the same room as my sister and eating together as a family is important. My upbringing sneaks its way into my stories and I find that my characters often have either a good relationship with their family or want to get closer to them.
Ask any Malaysians about their country and they would tell you that the food is amazing there. Food is a huge part of our lives, we have 24/7 mamak that caters to our late night cravings. I notice that I mention food in most of my stories and I've written multiple stories surrounding food. I thought it was a phase because I was watching MasterChef or some food anime, but I realise that it could very well be because of Malaysian's love for food.
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| People watching football at a mamak. |
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| A typical mamak setting. |
In class, we discussed the possibility of habitus mutating and I can say that it does. Prior to moving to Australia for studies, I wrote nothing related to Asian culture or Malaysia. I was using the knowledge I obtained from consuming a vast amount of American content to write. The pride Australians have for their local creators inspire me to look into my own culture. Somehow that thought never crossed my mine, I never thought my culture was interesting, but it seems like I just never really looked.
I always thought that my works come from me alone. Yes, it does come from my own mind but my thoughts and ideas are all influenced by habitus. What I find interesting is that habitus can change, it can develop as I interact with other habitus. And I think that makes people unique.
I really enjoyed reading this, and it's interesting to see a different perspective on the idea of Australians and how we percieve things, but also how you percieve Australians things being from a background of a non-Australian.
ReplyDeleteThough I'm always interested in what you have to say on many things anyways.
Thank you so much! That meant a lot to me. :)
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