Hitotsubashi University Repository

Titleノルベルト・エリアスの宮廷社会論 : 社会学のモデルと

しての宮廷社会

Author(s) 大平, 章

Citation 人文・自然研究, 7: 110-147

Issue Date 2013-03-31

Type Departmental Bulletin Paper

Text Version publisher

URL http://doi.org/10.15057/25560

Right

6　　人文・自然研究　第 7 号

Norbert Elias’s View on Court Society : French Court Society as a Sociological Model

Akira OHIRA

This essay aims to emphasize the importance of Norbert Elias’s The Court Society as a

book setting a sociological model. In fact The Court Society should be counted as an

indispensable text which helps us understand what Elias called ‘figurational sociology’

or ‘process sociology’ as well as his magnum opus The Civilizing Process. However, his

innovative methodology developed in The Court Society, especially by fusing sociolog-

ical and historical perspectives, has not been sufficiently appreciated by present-day

sociologists. According to Elias, court society is fundamentally related with modern

society in terms of self-control and rationality in human behavior and thinking, con-

tributing to state formation. Therefore the present essay demonstrates how important

it is to evaluate again this classical text in which Elias successfully created a sociologi-

cal model of French court society by illuminating the dynamics of its power relations

and power struggles as reflected in everyday activities, such as manners and etiquette,

or even in literary creation.