The World of Sociology(1)

Note: Sociology is part of my identity and literature as well. Then, I'll try to speak about these fields in some posts

Sociology of literature & literary sociology

As a branch of general sociology, sociology of literature is concerned with transtextuality, or anything that is outside the domain of the text itself. This field might include the process of production and distribution of the literary work, the audience, the author, critics, literary institutions, etc. On the other hand, literary sociology, as a branch of literary studies, is concerned with the text and its meaning, and aims to improve understanding of the text or its interpretations, and interprets the text linguistically from the perspectives of morphology, grammar, semantics and semiotics. Main figures of this field are Jacque Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes and Luis Althusser.
Two main approaches can be distinguished within sociology of literature, both of which are subject to criticism: the materialist approach and the idealist approach. Materialists see the connection between literature and society to be reflexive and mechanical, where literature is reduced to its representations of social and especially economic issues of society. This approach adopts a unilateral view toward literature and neglects the aesthetic autonomy of literature and literary phenomena. According to many critics, this view does not allow a proper interpretation of complicated literary phenomena. Idealists, on the other hand, believe in the perfect autonomy of artistic and literary products. Idealists ignore the complicated relation between social facts and literary works. They deal with literature in a purist and idealist manner, detaching it from social fact in order to reach its pure spirit. They reject any connection between literature and social and historical phenomena.
The three indivisible parts of sociology of literature are the book, the literary work, and reading, each of which are individually studied in the sociology of the book, the sociology of literary production, and the sociology of reading.
In sociology of book the sociologist studies the process of book production and distribution and asks why a book sells well in a certain time span and not in others, why does a special group read a particular book, why do some books not find their audience in spite of the literary value they enjoy, and why are the sales rates of books low in some societies. To find the answers to these questions the sociologist of literature studies the function of institutions such as universities, cultural centers, libraries, literary circles, organized censorship, and literary prizes, all of which are supposed to have much influence on the production, distribution, and even creation of the book.
Sociology of the literary creation, which goes back to the author and concentrates on thoughts and language, is closely connected to social reality while not being confined to it. Analysis of the form/content relationship is one of the issues in the study of literary creation. Erich Köhler sees the literary work as “the inseparable unification of form and content. The agreement between form and content can be considered a criterion for evaluating a work of art” (Timori Fasle No Journal).
Today, one of the influential and complex fields in sociology of literature is “reading the text”. Reading is a dialogue between the text and the transtext. In sociology of reading, what the reader does is as creative as the work of the author. Reading is an active process between the text and the mind of the reader; a close connection between the production and the perception of the literary works. Sociology of reading aims to answer such questions as: How is it that different readers have different interpretations of a single text? How is it that a single text has various interpretations in different eras? What is the relationship between textual structure and the mind of the reader? Do expectations of the reader influence his or her reading of a text? To what extent do a person’s education, mentalities, social status and class influence his or her reading and understanding of the text?
In fact, the literary work does not have a single structure so as to be interpreted in a single manner by all readers. Rather, the text has a multi-layer structure which results in multiple readings and consequently multiple interpretations of the text. The reading of a text is not limited to the reception of the message the text intends to communicate. The reading of a text is the ability of decoding through transtextuality. The reader does not have a passive mind; rather, the reader deals with the text according to his or her mental background, ideology, dreams and expectations. Therefore, any reader's reading of a text is unique to him or herself, and a text might have as many meanings as its readers. The author of a text might be only one of the elements or agents. The hypertext is as influential in the creation of a text as its author. Society, people, history, culture, current events, and the readers play parts similar to the author's in the formation of a work of art.
Jacques Derrida regards “reading as a kind of deconstruction. He believes in two types of reading. Classic reading which results in understanding the pretense of the text, and deconstructive reading which penetrates deep into the text” (Caputo, Derrida 76) . In the second type, reading is a kind of hermeneutic interpretation. In hermeneutics meaning is relative. There is no single and constant meaning. Any text possesses various meanings according to the various readings that there is of it, none of which is the definite meaning.
Jacques Derrida remarks in this regard that “a text has as many writers as its transtext and as many meanings” (G.Allen 103).


György Lukács Writer of Sociology of Novel

The other point is “the difference between sociology of literature and sociology of the novel. Although the novel is a literary genre, it is unique. According to Lukacs it can be seen as the epic of the modern era” (McKeon 179). If we consider the epic to be a replacement for myth (traditional rather than modern) then the novel can be seen as the modern replacement of the epic, and even as a complement that goes along with myth. Sociology of the novel is a recent form of sociology of literature which found its material (novels) from the Renaissance onward with the creation of Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Bibliography:

McKeon, Michael. Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Timori, Abbas. “An Introduction to Sociology Of Literature.” Fasl-e No. Version 5. Faculty of Social Science, University of Tehran, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2010. .

Lukacs, Georg. The Theory of the Novel. Trans by Hasan Mortazavi, Tehran: Nashr-e- Ghesseh, 1381.

Allen, Graham. Roland Barthes. Trans by Payam Yazdanjoo, Tehran: Nashr-e Markaz, 1385

Caputo, John. Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy). New York: Fordham University Press, 1996.