Literature in the Dawn of Sociological Theory: Stories That Are Telling

181 Pages·2021·1.029 MB·English

by  Sarah Louise MacMillen

Literature in the Dawn
of Sociological Theory

Literature in the Dawn
of Sociological Theory
Stories That Are Telling
Sarah Louise MacMillen
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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Copyright © 2022 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
Chapter Five: Parts of this chapter were previously published in Soundings and used
with permission. MacMillen, Sarah L. 2020. “From Herland to #MeToo: Utopia or
Dystopia?” Soundings 103 (2): 243–263.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any elec-
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ISBN: 978-1-7936-2805-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-7936-2807-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
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This book is dedicated to all of the humanists in my life—
family, friends, mentors, colleagues, and students.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter One: Literature in the Dawn of Sociological Theory 1
Chapter Two: New England Shadows: Hawthorne, Faust, and the
American Spiritual Character 23
Chapter Three: Moby Dick as Modern Epic: “Symphony” in a
Broken Ontology 41
Chapter Four: Literary Metanoia and the Sociological Imagination
in Joseph Conrad: Colonialism and Western Idealism 61
Chapter Five: Women and Men: The Tragicomic 83
Chapter Six: Suspending Modernity: Gender and History in
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando 101
Chapter Seven: The Absurd Christian: The Sociological
Imagination of Dostoevsky 123
Chapter Eight: Conclusion: Stories in the Dawn of Capitalism—
Crisis and Narrative in Boccaccio’s Decameron 141
References 155
Index 167
About the Author 169
vii

Acknowledgments
Why is a sociologist writing about literature? This is a question often repeated
by countless persons—from family to friends to critics—during the last
few years of this project. This was an important challenge and a constant
reminder of why literature is increasingly devalued in the social sciences and
wider academic spheres. But it was also a nudge for me to make a case that
the literary imagination is important not only within sociology’s theoretical
traditions, but literature also illuminates the realities of social life beyond the
limits and scope of sociological inquiry and methodology.
First, credits to earlier versions of these papers and their helpful audiences
and reception. Portions of these papers appeared at several conferences.
A few (preliminary remarks on) chapters were presented at the Midwest
Sociological Society: Chapter Two on Hawthorne in 2016 and Chapter Five
on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland in 2019. Harry Dahms edited an
issue of Soundings (Pennsylvania State University Press) where an earlier
edition of Chapter Five appeared. A version of the Virginia Woolf chapter
was presented at the American Sociological Association (ASA) in 2017. The
Boccaccio chapter was presented at Self & Society conference, an affiliate
of ASA, in 2020. And sections of the Moby Dick paper were delivered at
Self & Society in 2015, and the International Social Theory Consortium in
2021. The thumbnail sketches of the Dostoevsky chapter were published
in my University of Pittsburgh colleague Ryan McDermott’s venture, the
Genealogies of Modernity’s blog in 2020.
I first studied literature within higher education, under the direction of my
major in Classical Studies and Religion at Boston University. A seminar with
the former president of the American Academy of Religion, Ray Hart, was
a deep inspiration to the chapter on Moby Dick. Other influences in read-
ing literature as a wider force shaping culture, psychology, and sociology
ix