Fiction and Social Reality: Literature and Narrative As Sociological Resources

✍ Scribed by Mariano Longo

• Publisher: Ashgate Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 173
• Series: Classical and Contemporary Social Theory
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In spite of their differing rhetorics and cognitive strategies, sociology and literature are often concerned with the same objects: social relationships, action, motivation, social constraints and relationships, for example. As such, sociologists have always been fascinated with fictional literature. This book reinvigorates the debate surrounding the utility of fiction as a sociological resource, examining the distinction between the two forms of writing and exploring the views of early sociologists on the suitability of subjecting literary sources to sociological analysis. Engaging with contemporary debates in this field, the author explores the potential sociological use of literary fiction, considering the role of literature as the exemplification of sociological concepts, a non-technical confirmation of theoretical insights, and a form of empirical material used to confirm a set of theoretically oriented assumptions. A fascinating exploration of the means by which the sociological eye can be sharpened by engagement with literary sources, Fiction and Social Reality offers a set of methodological principles according to which literature can be examined sociologically. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and literary studies with interests in research methods and interdisciplinary approaches to scholarly research.

✦ Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Features and Structure of Narratives
2 The Cognitive Value of Fictional Narratives
3 Narratives and Sociology: At the Roots of a Forgotten Tradition
4 Writing Sociology: Social Sciences as Texts
5 When Sociologists Use Literary Sources
6 On the Sociological Use of Narratives

✦ Subjects

Movements Periods Ancient Classical Arthurian Romance Beat Generation Feminist Gothic Romantic LGBT Medieval Modern Modernism Postmodernism Renaissance Shakespeare Surrealism Victorian History Criticism Literature Fiction Research Social Sciences Politics Cultural Anthropology Sociology Abuse Class Death Marriage Family Medicine Race Relations Rural Theory Urban American Creative Writing Composition English Literary World Humanities New Used Rental Textbooks Specialty Boutique