Existence and object of the "sociology of literature", today

Abstract

For methodological reasons, sociology keeps a rather distant relationship to literature. As a scientific discipline, sociology has to define its objects on the basis of "inherent properties" (Durkheim). Would there be a literariness (Literarnost), as proposed by Roman Jakobson in 1919? Obviously, not. The same applies to fictionality. Sociology, therefore, prefers to tackle its object in a roundabout way, to approach "literature" by its surroundings: audiences, critiques, publishing policies, reading. This paper analyzes some historical and epistemological reasons for such a strategy, which avoids addressing the very core of literature: the confrontation of different fictional worlds in the text and in the reading. Based on the fiction theory, it is argued that if sociology is to understand the forces that transform the present status of society, it should pay more attention to the symbolic processes that occur in the literary experience, an activity that allows everyone to confront possible (fictional) situations and values and that, therefore, symbolizes a possible different social world.