The Sociology of Texts and the Institutionalisation of Literary Languages

Abstract

Abstract: This paper is divided into three parts. The first part is based on one of the basic insights of the Russian Formalists, namely that the literary text is linked to society by language, an insight that is absent from traditional sociologies of literature. The second part defines the literary text as a universal linguistic experiment that is at the same time a model of society at a particular historical moment. The third part deals with the question how literary languages are institutionalised by individual writers or groups of writers in manifestos, collective works and experimental texts. The basic aim is to show how a sociology of texts combines the key concepts of socio-linguistic situation, sociolect and intertextuality with the notion of institution. The literary text, which can be construed as a model of a particular socio-linguistic situation, aspires towards institutionalisation: it pretends to be the new or legitimate text and a universal experiment with language worth imitating.

Key words: discourse, intertextuality, institution, socio-linguistic situation, sociolect

Peter·V. Zima. The Sociology of Texts and the Institutionalisation of Literary Languages[J]. Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art, 2014, 34(5): 108-118.

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