Text – poznanie – prax: Za možnosť literárnej vedy vychádzať z vedomostnej sociológie
Text – knowledge – practice: For a sociology of knowledge option in literary studies

Summary/Abstract: Analyzing the meaning structure of literary texts, i.e. reconstructing their semantic inner logic and its context-sensitive interpretation, remains one of the core tasks of literary studies. When reflecting on the self-descriptions of societies, the sociology of knowledge and literature comes into play. If literary research increases knowledge of the effect and function of descriptions of society, it assumes a shared responsibility for the semantic “environmental” conditions, under which society observes itself. It is thus responsible for shaping the narrative patterns by which societies interpret themselves, i.e. collective or group semantics, as well as for associated reductions in complexity. Niklas Luhmann recommended that the sociology of knowledge should formulate such a “theory of society observing and describing itself ” (1995, 154), but the cultural studies approach to the term “knowledge” prevalent in German-language studies between 2000–2015 is not necessarily conducive to this approach. This article reflects the aspect of “knowledge” from the two sides mentioned in the title and corners it praxeologically and textualistically, i.e. in its dynamic, social micro and macro dimension (between cognitive psychology and sociology) and in its textualist dimension.

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