Sociology of Literature

What is Sociology of Literature?

Sociology of  Literature is a process of understanding a literary work by considering the social aspects the work and the society as its background.

—Literature is concerned with man’s social world, his adaptation to it, and his desire to change it. Thus the novel can be seen as the as an attempt to re-create the social world of man’s relation with his family, politics, the State/country. It delineates too his role within the family and the other institutions, the conflicts and tensions between groups and social classes.Literature not only transcends a mere description and objective scientific analysis, it also penetrates the surfaces of social life, showing the ways in which men and women experience society as a feeling.So sociology and literature are not wholly distinct disciplines but complement each other in our understanding of society.

What does literature actually reflect?

Society is more than an ensemble of social institutions that make up social structure: it contains both norms, the standards of behavior which individuals come to accept as right ways of acting and judging, as well as values which are consciously formulated and which people come to strive to realize socially.

Literature reflects norms, attitudes, the values in the sense of the writer’s own intention and it might suggested that it is on the level of values where literature is seen to reinforce and illuminate purely sociological material.

Literature, as a reflection of values and feelings, points to both the degree of change occurring in different societies as well as to the manner in which individuals become socialized into the social structure and their response to this experience.

Because it delineates man’s anxieties, hopes, and aspirations, literature is perhaps one of the most effective sociological barometers of the human response to social forces.