Carlin2010a

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Carlin2010a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Carlin2010a
Author(s) Andrew P. Carlin
Title The corpus status of literature in teaching sociology: novels as “sociological reconstruction”
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Fiction, Harvey Sacks, Literature, Relevance, Sociology of literature, Teaching sociology
Publisher
Year 2010
Language
City
Month
Journal The American Sociologist
Volume 41
Number 3
Pages 211–231
URL Link
DOI 10.1007/s12108-010-9096-8
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Using fiction in teaching sociology involves what Harvey Sacks calls “sociological reconstruction”. Numerous comments on teaching sociology provide advice and suggestions on the use of literature and “what counts” as “sociological” literature, including specific titles. This paper goes further: while the use of literature is a routine feature of sociological accounts, discerning the relevance of a novel, or a passage within a novel, to sociological themes is an analyst’s achievement. It requires work both by the teacher and the student to recognize the relevance of fiction to sociology. Previous studies on fiction in sociology focus on the pedagogic aspects of using novels but fail to acknowledge the key problem of “sociological reconstruction” attempted through the use of novels. The paper explicates the crucial and generic issue of “corpus status”, which is fore-grounded by the use of non-sociological materials in sociology.

Notes