Social Life Through Literature

A Suggested Strategy for Conducting a Literary Ethnography

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10561537
AutoresFrédérique Van de Poel‐Knottnerus (Universidad Tecnica de Machala, autor de correspondencia), Frederique Van De Poel-Knottnerus, J David Knottnerus (Universidad Tecnica de Machala)
Año1994
Volumen27
Número1
Páginas67-80
Fecha de publicación1994-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociological Focus (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-0237 • E-ISSN: 2162-1128
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00380237.1994.10571010
OpenAlexW2062432899
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas37

This paper presents a strategy for utilizing literary documents for the purpose of social description and analysis. It is argued that literature in the realist tradition can be used to generate a "literary ethnography" or composite portrait of social and historical phenomena. This is accomplished through the identification of dominant themes within a collection of literary works. A six stage procedure and set of guidelines for conducting such an investigation are outlined and discussed. The development of this approach, illustrations of it use, and discussion of its merits suggest that literature is a valuable source of "evidence" concerning social phenomena including those dimensions of personal and social life we may have little access to when using other research strategies

Aesthetics · Art history · Epistemology · Ethnography · Identification (biology · Portrait · Set (abstract data type · Social life · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis · Ecology · History · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics