A Pentagram for the Sociology of Literature

Abstract

The article discusses the what and the how of the sociology of literature in two steps. First, a model is proposed — the pentagram — comprising five nodes and their interrelated links for visualising the holistic literary-sociological research perspective. Second, the pentagram is related to six concrete strands of current research areas within the field, especially emphasising aspects concerning methodology and empirical materials: (1) literary-sociological bibliometrics; (2) archival materials and historical sources; (3) fiction and literary analysis; (4) studies of literary media and materiality; (5) ethnographic methods; and (6) quantitative studies of reading and reception. The perspectives and research examples are consequently derived from the Scandinavian tradition of the sociology of literature, which represents a distinct and uninterrupted tradition that in certain respects diverges from the Anglophone, German, and French ones.