The Literary Turn: past, present and future in the human and social sciences

Authors

  • Gustavo Vargas Cohen Universidade Federal de Roraima - UFRR

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18764/2447-6498.v10n2.2024.22

Keywords:

Literary turn, Qualitative studies, Narrative, Subjectivity, Postmodernism

Abstract

The aim of this research is to present and discuss the stylistic changes that have occurred in scientific texts in various areas of the human sciences in recent decades. The transitions from objectivity to subjectivity that have affected, and continue to affect, qualitative studies are highlighted, and the changes in narrative tone that mark the literary turn are revealed. Relevant operational terms such as subjectivity and the limits of its possibility and the challenges of conceptualizing postmodernity are critically addressed. Among the authors who provide the basis for the research are Hyvarinen (2010) and Strikwerda (1998). By briefly outlining the past and the present of the literary turn in the human and social sciences, some points of notable significance have been highlighted, arguments for and against have been reported, and conditions to allow a glimpse of its future have been provided. The conclusion is that the fate of the literary turn is linked to the fate of the postmodern movement.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Gustavo Vargas Cohen, Universidade Federal de Roraima - UFRR

Doutor em Letras/Literaturas de Língua Inglesa pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (2012), mestrado em Letras/Língua Inglesa e Respectivas Literaturas pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2003), licenciatura em Letras/Língua Inglesa e Literaturas Correspondentes pela Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (2001) e estágio de pós-doutorado na Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho – UNESP/São José do Rio Preto.

References

BARTHES, Roland; DUISIT, Lionel. An introduction to the structural analysis of narrative. New Literary History, v. 6, n. 2, p. 237-272, 1975.

BAUMAN, Zygmunt. Sociology and postmodernity. The Sociological Review, v. 36, n. 4, p. 790-813, 1988.

BURAWOY, M. Sociology as a vocation: moral commitment and scientific imagination. Current Sociology, v. 62, n. 2, p. 279-84, 2014.

CLIFFORD, James; MARCUS, George. Writing culture: the poetics and politics of ethnography. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986.

DRAY, William. On the nature and role of narrative in historiography. History and Theory, v. 10, n. 2, p. 153-171, 1971.

FARRER, C. R. Orthodoxy and heterodoxy: locating ethnography. American Anthropologist, v. 98, n. 1, p. 170-172, 1996.

FISCHER, Michael J.; MARCUS, George E. Anthropology as cultural critique: an experimental moment in the human sciences. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1986.

FULDA, Daniel. Historiographic Narration. In: HÜHN, Peter; MEISTER, Jan; PIER, John; SCHMID, Wolf. Handbook of Narratology. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.

GEERTZ, Clifford. An inconstant profession: the anthropological life in interesting times. Annual Review of Anthropology, v. 31, p. 1-19, 2002.

GIDDENS, A. Structuralism, Post-structuralism and the Production of Culture. In: GIDDENS, A.; TURNER, J. (eds.). Social Theory Today. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987.

GIDDENS, A. Social Theory and Modern Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007.

HAMMERSLEY, Martyn (2023). Rewriting social science: the literary turn in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry (early access).

HYVÄRINEN, M. Revisiting the narrative turns. Life Writing, v. 7, p. 69-82, 2010.

IGGERS, Georg. Historiography in the twentieth century: from scientific objectivity to the postmodern challenge. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2005.

KANG, M.; LESSARD, D.; HESTON, L.; NORDMARKEN, S. Introduction to women, gender, sexuality studies. Amherst: Univ. of Mass. Amherst Libraries, 2017.

KUZNAR, L. A. Reclaiming a scientific anthropology. Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2008.

LaCAPRA, Dominick. History in transit: experience, identity, critical theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.

LUHMANN, Niklas. Individuum, individualität, individualismus: gesellschaftsstruktur und semantik. Studien zur Wissenssoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft, v. 3, p. 149-258, 1989.

MERTON, Robert K. The sociology of science: theoretical and empirical investigations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.

MEUTER, Norbert. Narration in various disciplines. In: HÜHN, Peter; MEISTER, Jan; PIER, John; SCHMID, Wolf. Handbook of Narratology. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.

MILLER, Owen. Review of On Narrative. Narratology, v.17, n. 2, p. 294-297, 1983.

MITCHELL, M.; Egudo, M. A review of narrative methodology. Edinburgh: DSTO Systems Sciences Laboratory, 2003.

MITCHELL, W. J. T. On narrative. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1981.

NASH, Cristopher. Narrative in culture: the uses of storytelling in the sciences, philosophy, and literature. London: Routledge, 1990.

NORRIS, Christopher. The deconstructive turn: essays in the rhetoric of philosophy. North Yorkshire: Methuen Publishing, 1984.

PHILIPS, Mark Salber. On historical distance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

PORTER, D. (1984). Anthropological tales: unprofessional thoughts on the Mead/Freeman controversy. Notebooks in Cultural Analysis, v. 1, p. 15-37, 1984.

RABINOW, Paul; MARCUS, George E.; FAUBION, James D.; REES, Tobias. Designs for an anthropology of the contemporary. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.

REINELT, Janelle. Zeitgeist. Contemporary Theatre Review, v. 23, n. 1, p. 90-92, 2013.

REISS, J.; SPRENGER, J. Scientific Objectivity. In: ZALTA, E. (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition). 2020. Disponível em: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2020/entries/scientific-objectivity/. Acesso em: 05 maio 2024.

REYNOLDS, Colin; YATSUHASHI, Andrew; FERRO, Dominic. Is science truly unbiased and impersonal? Introduction to the History of Science & Technology. Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 7 Sep. 2018. Disponível em: https://wp.wpi.edu/introhist/2018/09/07/is-science-truly-unbiased-and-impersonal/

Acesso em: 08 maio 2024.

RÜTH, Axel. Erzählte geschichte: narrative strukturen in der französischen

annales-geschichtsschreibung. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2005.

TSILIPAKOS, Leonidas. The idea of an ethically committed social science. History of the Human Sciences, 2021. Disponível em:

oai:research-information.bris.ac.uk:publications/c21411aa-c0db-4472-a805-6cae0fcb994b. Acesso em: 10 maio 2024.

SAID, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

SPRADLEY, James P. The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1979.

STONE, Lawrence. The revival of narrative: reflections on a new old history. Past & Present. n. 85, p. 3-24, 1979.

STRIKWERDA, Robert A. Falsification and fieldwork in recent American anthropology. ISSA - international society for the study of argumentation. Proceedings 1998. Rozenberg Quarterly. 1998.

Published

2024-12-13

How to Cite

Cohen, G. V. . (2024). The Literary Turn: past, present and future in the human and social sciences. Revista Interdisciplinar Em Cultura E Sociedade, 148–168. https://doi.org/10.18764/2447-6498.v10n2.2024.22

Issue

Section

Artigos