Empirical literary studies

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After its founder Siegfried J. Schmidt, the term empirical literary studies is understood to mean a literary study that pursues the following goals:

  1. Your theory structure should be explicit ( "theoreticity").
  2. The statements of the theory should be empirically verifiable and relate to the social field of action literature ("empiricality").
  3. The theory should receive social relevance through applicability (“relevance”, “applicability”).

Subject of empirical literary studies

Traditional, hermeneutically oriented literary studies see their main task as dealing with "literary texts", especially the interpretation of such texts. The representatives of empirical literary studies criticize this restriction as arbitrary and hold against traditional literary studies that the majority of their research results do not contain any knowledge that goes beyond the immediate purpose of the research (examination, qualification, appointment, etc.) in other scientific disciplines or even would be useful outside of literary studies or could be useful for solving social problems.

In order for literary studies to develop into a normal science in the sense of Thomas S. Kuhn , the representatives of empirical literary studies believe that not only its prerequisites, but also its subject matter must be redefined. The cognitive interest hence the empirical literature is not so much the "literary works of art" but rather the human actions that have to do with literary phenomena in the broadest sense such. B. the production, mediation, reception and processing of literature.

Term of literature

Empirical literary studies does not determine the term "literature" from the literary text , document or work of art , but rather as a system of social action. "Literature" is described as a network of actions of the participants ("actants") of the "action system literature": authors, readers, critics, publishers, etc. These actions can be investigated with empirical methods. If, on the other hand, one makes the literary work of art the main subject of literary studies and its interpretation the main task, then, in the opinion of the representatives of empirical literary studies, one is faced with the problem of an unclear concept of science and, as a result, of an unmanageable pluralism of methods, which is the opposite of a normal scientific research tradition that focuses on critical rationality, Argumentation, empirical verification and intersubjective verifiability / falsifiability sets.

Applications and benefits

Empirical literary studies is closely related to psychological reading research and draws from it practical methods to empirically describe the actions in the "action system literature", such as reading, questionnaire or evaluation techniques . Practical fields of application can be found primarily in an interdisciplinary context, for example in interaction with social, political or legal sciences. Here it helps to grasp and present the effect of a literary work on the action system in which the work is located. In the course of the legal assessment of literary texts, as in the Böhmermann case or the Esra case , empirical literary studies are thus able to define essential terms and to empirically test the direct effect of the work on those affected and also the indirect effect on those affected via their environment .

literature

  • Siegfried J. Schmidt: Outline of empirical literary studies . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1991.
  • Siegfried J. Schmidt: Literary Studies from Hermeneutics to Media Culture Studies . CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 12.1 (2010): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol12/iss1/1 .
  • Siegfried J. Schmidt: Literary studies as argumentative science . Fink, Munich 1975.
  • Siegfried J. Schmidt: Worlds of Communication: Interdisciplinary Transitions . Peter Lang, Bern 2011.
  • Helmut Hauptmeier, Siegfried J. Schmidt: Introduction to Empirical Literary Studies . Vieweg, Braunschweig, Wiesbaden 1985.
  • The Systemic and Empirical Approach to Literature and Culture as Theory and Application . Ed. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek and Irene Sywenky. Edmonton: Research Institute for Comparative Literature, University of Alberta and Siegen: Institute for Empirical Literature and Media Research, Siegen University, 1997.
  • Agata Anna Lisiak, Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek: Bibliography of Siegfried J. Schmidt's Publications . CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 12.1 (2010): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol12/iss1/9 .
  • Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek: Bibliography of Contextual (Systemic and Empirical) Approaches in the Study of Literature and Culture (to 1998). CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 3.3 (2001): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol3/iss3/7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Mehl: Fiction and Identity in the Esra Case. Multidisciplinary processing of legal proceedings , LIT Verlag, Berlin a. a. 2014, chap. 4th