Literature – Sociology – Humanities (On Political Economy of Postmodernism)

Abstract

The article proposes to analyze, in the sociological perspective, the collision of the so-called old and new in the literature, but also — more broadly — in the humanities, especially in its literary version. It is also intended, at the same time, to be an introduction to criticism of literary studies and their destructive influence on (academic) interpretations and (to a lesser extent) colloquial reception of literature. The text is an extension of the theoretical concept of the author outlined earlier in the volume Perspektywy socjologii kultury artystycznej (“Perspectives of the sociology of artistic culture”) and detailed in the problem monograph Św. Gombrowicz (“Saint Gombrowicz”). The whole is also referred in this case to the description of the specific character of the broadly understood academic life and scientific creativity of humanists.