Literature in the Dawn of Sociological Theory

Building on aesthetic, sociological, and literary theories, the author focuses on a selection of novelists from the early 1800s to the early 1900s and their contribution to the sociological imagination. Throughout the text, the book considers these “stories that are telling” in light of social issues today.

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Literature in the Dawn of Sociological Theory: Stories that are Telling focuses on a selection of novelists from the early 1800s to the early 1900s and their contribution to the sociological imagination. Building on the aesthetic, sociological, and literary theories of Theodor Adorno, György Lukács, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Wolf Lepenies, Franco Moretti, Lucien Goldmann, John Orr, and others, the main chapters discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The concluding chapter reflects on the dawn of the modern era, especially the birth of capitalism and the plague crisis in Boccaccio’s Florence, as described in The Decameron. Throughout the text, the author considers these “stories that are telling” in light of social issues today. Sarah Louise MacMillen presents a case for highlighting the insight of the authors of the past, wherein these “fictional” accounts anticipate some of our contemporary social problems and conflicts. These include the environmental crisis, globalization, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, “cancel culture,” debates about gender non-conformity, secularization, the call for solidarity in shifting patterns of social existence, and rebuilding society post-COVID.