The aim of the program is to develop new interdisciplinary methods for analyzing the social uses of literature that avoid the reductive tendencies of traditional sociologies of literature. Actor-network theory, especially, offers a fruitful resource for investigating aesthetic attachments and offering richer and more nuanced accounts of how literature circulates in the world. Researchers engaged in distinct yet related projects will take their orientation from Rita Felski’s work, especially Uses of Literature, The Limits of Critique, and her current book on attachment, and her NLH volume on “New Sociologies of Literature,” to develop innovative forms of interaction between literature and the social sciences.
"Uses of Literature. The Social Dimensions of Literature" is a Niels Bohr Professorship founded in 2016 and funded by the Danish National Research Foundation, based at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense.
For more about our work please visit our website: https://www.sdu.dk/en/uol
