Some Aspects of the Sociology of Literature in West Germany

Abstract

In the eyes of West German academic sociology, the sociology of literature and, particularly, of its literary effects, appears to be an unwelcome hybrid form of sociology. This reflects a tendency which was also characteristic of German society in the Weimar Republic. Then, too, it was largely left to outsiders to pose the general probblems in the sociology of literature. Typical were L. L. Schucking,1 with his largely geistesgeschichtlich sociology of literary taste (Lehre von den Geschmackstragertypen), or W. Strauss's study of literature effects.2 The questions which form the basis of R. Konig's early work3 centre in a similar fashion to his study of the dissolution of the Naturalist aesthetic in France4 on issues of social aesthetics and taste discussed in the context of cultural science. Another focus of the early sociology of literature in Germany was the question of 'literary success'. Of course, we must bear in mind here that in the sociology of the 1920s 'success' was still a legitimate object of investigation.5 It was typical that the discussion of literary success and literary reputation was conducted in the art pages (Feuilleton) of the press and outside the realm of academic sociology.6 None the less, although they were neglected at the time, as they are today, these were the first attempts to elaborate the connection between literary theory and literary production.7 The Nazis had no use for critical sociology and sociologists. On the contrary, they drove a whole generation of sociology teachers to emigration. The literary sociologists of the day (e.g. E. KohnBrahmstedt or L. Lowenthal)8 shared the same fate as German writers (e.g. T. Mann, H. Mann, B. Brecht, F. Wolf, A. Seghers, K. Tucholsky, W. Bredel, J. R. Becher). What then passed for the sociology of literature in Germany can safely be forgotten.9