Literary fiction and social science. Two partially overlapping magisteria
Journal Title: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology - Year 2014, Vol 5, Issue 2
Abstract
Literary fiction and social science, despite the fact that they comprise two methodologically autonomous cultures, are nonetheless creatively interfere with each other. This paper explores the multiple points of contact between literature and social science and tracks the influences that literary fiction has had on social-scientific knowledge. Nine cases of ideas originally developed in literary sphere and then taken over by various social sciences and integrated into their conceptual vocabularies form the analytic material of this study. The main argument defended in this paper is that literary fiction is a great source of ideas that can inspire theory construction in social sciences. The corpus of literary texts which make up the textual universe of literature contains many embryonically foreshadowed concepts and proto-theories that can be worked out by social sciences into full-blown scientific conceptualizations. Literary tradition is also the depository of punctual propositions that can be distilled from fiction and translated into empirically testable hypotheses. This quality of literary fiction, of providing ‘Prêt-à-tester’ propositions, makes it a predilect source of inspiration for social science theorizing.
Authors and Affiliations
Mihai Stelian Rusu
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP142919
- DOI -
- Views 85
- Downloads 0
Social structure vs. self rehabilitation: IDF widows forming an intimate relationship in the sociopolitical discourse
The public discourse pertaining to IDF (Israel Defense Forces) widows, especially those cohabiting with a partner out of wedlock, is presented by means of a study that analyzes competing representations in the sociopolit...
From land to sea: unsettling subjectivities
In this paper I trace an important conceptual shift which emerged during my fieldwork with fishermen in the South West of Ireland. I begin by describing how my role as a social researcher was interpreted as a valuable ‘b...
The device, the self and the other: A review of the self-tracking culture
This paper takes self-tracking culture as the subject matter and provides an example of systematic academic literature review that explores the relationship between culture and nature. It illustrates how the embedding tr...
Introduction
‘Based on a true story’: Ethnography’s impact as a narrative form
Rus, Alin. (2007) The mineriads: between political manipulation and workers’ solidarity – foreword by Ruxandra Cesereanu, Introduction by John Glendhill, Bucharest, Curtea Veche