Sociologia e letteratura : percorsi disciplinari e misletture

The essay argues for the use of literary sources in social analysis. It is a proposal that does not involve the replacement of sociological knowledge with literary knowledge, but the use of literary work for the understanding of society. The hypothesis supported here introduces the necessity of translation through the negotiation of meanings, with the intent to attenuate the cognitive deficit that inevitably arises between the vast complexity of the social situation and the scarce amplitude of the methodological equipment available to the social sciences. This interpretative strategy is not an opportunistic move of reductio ad minimum, but it is a form of reasonableness that invites us to accept as scientifically plausible the multiple representations of the social, with the aim of arriving at a renewed cognitive efficacy.