Sociology of literature

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Literary sociology is the science of the social and cultural conditions of the production , distribution and reception of literature . As a sub-discipline of literary studies, it examines the interrelationships between literature and society or the mutual relations of the socio-cultural factors of literary production, reception and distribution. Thus, on the one hand, the sociology of literature expressly differentiates itself from a purely work- immanent approach and includes theoretical assumptions from sociology in its investigations. On the other hand, however, it is by no means a sub-area of ​​a sociological orientation that deals exclusively with the institutions of literary life and the associated roles and processes, without being primarily interested in the literary work as such.

overview

While most literary theories recognize the reliance of the individual author on the social conditions of his work (with significant exceptions in Russian formalism , New Criticism , structuralism, and deconstruction ), literary sociology examines the influence of an author's class , gender, and political interests , the “ zeitgeist ” of a specific epoch , the economic framework conditions of the literary class and the book trade as well as the social classification and values ​​of literary addressees and recipients . Added to this is the interpretation of literary criticism and interpretation in view of their social framework.

The basis is the problematic relationship between literature and society. If literature is interpreted as a pure reflection of a society, its claim to aesthetic autonomy is lost; if art, on the other hand, is completely autonomous, all sociological questions about it become obsolete.

Adorno's literary theory occupies a middle position between the two extremes: precisely because art radically negates society , the state of a society can be read from what it specifically negates - it is both autonomous and fait social .

An alternative to this is Bourdieu's theory of the literary field . Bourdieu assumes that there is a close connection between the literary work of an actor, his habitual perception and assessment of the social world, as well as his social status position, which can theoretically be grasped as structural homology.

Another variety of modern sociology of literature, which operates under the term system-theoretical literary studies and which also includes empirical literary studies , attempts to describe the literary industry and its instances as a system of action or communication.

Literature is often analyzed from the perspective of utopia : it is not understood as a description of what society is , but what it should be .

history

In De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800), Anne Louise Germaine de Staël clearly formulates the social conditioning of literature. Hippolyte Taine explains literary works in his History of English Literature (1863) by recourse to three factors: the “ race ” of its author, his geographical and “ social milieu ” and his historical “ moment ”.

However, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century, with the development of general methodologies in sociology , that subjects in the sociology of literature were dealt with systematically, for example in the analyzes of Georg Simmel , Max Weber and Georg Lukács , which, however, found little response to actual literary research.

Even Arnold Hauser's significant contribution to the social history of art and literature (1953) was destined fate. Nonetheless, the beginnings of literary sociology in Germany, as it is associated in particular with the names Samuel Lublinski and Georg Lukács, are closely related to the establishment of an autonomous literary production area and mark the beginning of a systematic recording of the interaction between modern literature and society, their genealogy can be traced into the theory of the literary field and systems theory.

Inspired by book market research and influenced by the sociological theses of Robert Escarpit , Alphons Silbermann undertook empirical and statistical research into literary distribution, production and reception in the 1960s , whereby the aesthetic intrinsic value of the literary work of art remains hidden. This later moved to the center of the interests of Lucien Goldmann and Pierre Bourdieu , who are considered to be the main exponents of genetic structuralism within the sociology of literature and who bring together aspects of horizontal and vertical differentiation.

In the works of the Frankfurt School , especially by Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno , the work of art becomes a 'historical-philosophical sundial' that expresses the respective historical stage of development of a society particularly clearly.

In today's research, Marxist and feminist literary theories are particularly influenced by questions of the sociology of literature, which find their purest expression in New Historicism . Theorists of systems theory , semiotics or discourse analysis also try to catch up with questions of the sociology of literature.

The always only cursory interest of sociology in i. e. S. literary-sociological questions (in a completely breadless field of research) has resulted in a considerable literary-sociological expansion of the field of view and the analyzes within literary studies itself since the 1970s .

See also

literature

Overall representations

  • Andreas Dörner, Ludgera Vogt : Sociology of literature. Literature, society, political culture (= WV-Studium 170 literary studies ). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994, ISBN 3-531-22170-1
  • Hans Norbert Fügen: The main directions of the sociology of literature and their methods (= treatises on art, music and literary studies. 21). 4th edition Bouvier, Bonn 1970 ISBN 3-416-00395-0 (also: Mainz, University, dissertation, 1962).
  • Elke M. Geenen , Hans Norbert Fügen: Sociology of literature. In: Günter Endruweit , Gisela Trommsdorff (Ed.): Dictionary of Sociology (= UTB. Sociology 2232). 2., completely new. and exp. Edition. Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart 2002 ISBN 3-8282-0172-5 , pp. 325-335
  • Arnold Hauser : Social history of art and literature. Unabridged special edition in 1 volume. Beck, Munich 1983 ISBN 3-406-02515-3 (several editions)
  • Diana Laurenson, Alan Swingewood: The Sociology of Literature. Paladin, London 1972 ISBN 0-586-08128-3 .
  • Jürgen Link , Ursula Link-Heer: Propaedeutic in the sociology of literature. With the results of a Bochum teaching and research group for the sociology of literature 1974–76 (= Uni-Taschenbücher 799). Fink, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7705-1640-0
  • Leo Löwenthal : On the social situation of literature , Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung , 1–2, 1932, pp. 85–102
  • Heinrich Lützeler :  Problems of the sociology of literature , in "The newer languages," 40, 1932, Ed. Wilhelm Viëtor, Diesterweg Verlag, pp. 473–478
  • Georg Lukács : Theory of the novel. A historical-philosophical attempt on the forms of the great epic (= dtv Wissenschaft, 4624). Foreword from 1962. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1994 ISBN 3-423-04624-4 (first Cassirer, Berlin 1920)
  • Georg Lukács:  On the sociology of modern drama. 2 parts. Archive for Social Science and Social Policy , 38, 1914, pp. 303–345; Pp. 662-706
  • Christine Magerski and Christa Karpenstein-Eßbach: Literary Sociology . Basics, problems and theories. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2019 ISBN 978-3-658-22291-8 [1]
  • Friedrich Nietzsche : The birth of tragedy from the spirit of music. EW Fritzsch, Leipzig 1872
  • Jürgen Scharfschwerdt: Basic problems of the sociology of literature. An overview of the history of science. (= Urban-Taschenbücher, 217) Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977 ISBN 3-17-001543-5
  • Alphons Silbermann : Introduction to the sociology of literature. Oldenbourg, Munich 1981 ISBN 3-486-19951-X

Individual studies

  • Theodor W. Adorno : Notes on literature (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 355). Edited by Rolf Tiedemann . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-518-27955-6 .
  • Pierre Bourdieu : The rules of art. Genesis and structure of the literary field (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 1539). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 978-3-518-29139-9 . [in the original Les règles de l'art: Genése et structure du champ littèraire. Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1992]
  • Lucien Goldmann : Dialectical studies (= sociological texts. Vol. 29, ISSN  0584-6072 ). Luchterhand, Neuwied et al. 1966.
  • Leo Löwenthal : Writings. Edited by Helmut Dubiel . Volume 1: Literature and mass culture (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 901). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-518-28501-7 .
  • Niklas Luhmann : Writings on art and literature (= Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 1872). Published by Niels Werber . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-29472-7 .
  • Christine Magerski :
    • Make school. On the history and topicality of the sociology of literature // On the History and Contemporary Relevance of the Sociology of Literature . In: Zagreb Germanist Contributions , issue 24/2015, pp. 193–220, available online as a PDF file at [2] .
    • The constitution of the literary field in Germany after 1871. Berlin modernism, literary criticism and the beginnings of literary sociology. Tübingen: Niemeyer (studies and texts on the social history of literature, vol. 101) 2004.
  • Andrew Milner: Literature, Culture and Society. 2nd edition. Routledge, London et al. 2005, ISBN 0-415-30784-8 .
  • Siegfried J. Schmidt . The self-organization of the literary social system in the 18th century. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-518-58005-1 .
  • Alain Viala: Naissance de l'écrivain. Sociologie de la littérature à l'âge classique. Minuit, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-7073-1025-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Michael Ansel: Literatursoziologie. In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 197-200, here p. 197.
  2. ↑ See Michael Ansel: Literatursoziologie. In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 197-200, here p. 197.
  3. ^ Christine Magerski: The constitution of the literary field in Germany after 1871. Berlin modernism, literary criticism and the beginnings of literary sociology. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-092070-3 .
  4. ↑ See Michael Ansel: Literatursoziologie. In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 197-200, here p. 198.