POWIEŚĆ AUTOBIOGRAFICZNA JAKO DOKUMENT OSOBISTY I PODOBNY DO PAMIĘTNIKÓW KONKURSOWYCH MATERIAŁ BADAŃ SOCJOLOGICZNYCH
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL AS PERSONAL DOCUMENT AND SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH MATERIAL SIMILAR TO THE COMPETITION DIARIES

Summary/Abstract: The article presents selected arguments in favor of treatment of autobiographical novels in sociology as per- sonal documents. Firstly, the assumptions of the biographical method (or biographical perspective) are demon- strated. All of them can be applied in social sciences analysis using both diaries (autobiographies, memories) written in competitions organized by sociologists and autobiographical novels published in the book market. As it is known, the tradition of research on competition diaries is related to the names of sociologists such as F. Znaniecki, J. Chalasinski, W. Grabski, L. Krzywicki, J. Szczepanski and Z. Dulczewski. Secondly, the author of the article makes an attempt to answer why autobiographical novels can be used in social science research. For this purpose, the author points out the similarities between both of the above-mentioned types of narration. At the end, it is presented why the probability criterion (met by both the competition diaries and autobiographical novels) is the most important feature in the study of personal documents. This criterion gives the researcher the opportunity to discuss, among others, the attitudes and values of social categories which include the author of the document and which also are described in the document.

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