Abstract: In « Art » (1994) Yasmina Reza has three male characters behaving like those studied by Pierre Bourdieu in La Domination masculine (1998). They are competing with each other, and exert themselves in asserting their virility as they also engage in activities attesting their masculinity. However an apparently futile conflict threatens their friendship and signals the emergence of modernity as a metaphor for the “profound vulnerability” of masculinity analysed by the sociologist.
