Fiction and Social Knowledge : Towards a Strong Program in the Sociology of Literature
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F20%3A00117765" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/20:00117765 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://sociologica.hse.ru/data/2020/12/31/1346289513/RusSocRev_19_4_14-35_Vana.pdf" target="_blank" >https://sociologica.hse.ru/data/2020/12/31/1346289513/RusSocRev_19_4_14-35_Vana.pdf</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17323/1728-192x-2020-4-14-35" target="_blank" >10.17323/1728-192x-2020-4-14-35</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Fiction and Social Knowledge : Towards a Strong Program in the Sociology of Literature
Original language description
Following the strong program in cultural sociology, I propose a strong program in the sociology of liter-ature, which treats literary pieces rightly as relatively autonomous cultural entities and “independent var-iables”. To outline the epistemological foundations of the new research program, I compare how social knowledge comes into existence through the sociological text and the text of literary fiction. I discuss the representation of social reality in interpretive research, with Isaac Reed’s book Interpretation and Social Knowledge as a starting point. To claim literary autonomy, I outline some of the aspects which social the-ory shares with literary fiction. I am mainly interested in how social theory and literary fiction mediate social knowledge to their readers via the aesthetic experience. I identify two main categories of social knowledge mediated by literature: existential understanding and Zeitgeist. Discussing the sociological treatment of several novels, I look at how these two categories intertwine and support each other to create colorful, sensitive, but also robust and deep social knowledge, which condenses aesthetic, existential, and non-discursive aspects of social experience together with the “big picture” of whole societies. I argue that only by overcoming the often-assumed inferiority of literature in sociological research can sociology real-ize its full potential in understanding the meanings of social life.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>SC</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the SCOPUS database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50401 - Sociology
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach
Others
Publication year
2020
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Russian Sociological Review – Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie
ISSN
1728-192X
e-ISSN
1728-1938
Volume of the periodical
19
Issue of the periodical within the volume
4
Country of publishing house
RU - RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Number of pages
22
Pages from-to
14-35
UT code for WoS article
000605028500002
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85100035362