Empirical study of literature

The term empirical literature is by its founder, Siegfried J. Schmidt a literature understood, the following objectives:

Subject of the empirical literature

The traditional hermeneutic oriented literature sees as its main task the study of " literary texts " to, especially the interpretation of such texts. The representatives of the empirical literature criticizing this restriction as arbitrary and maintain the traditional literature before, that the predominant part of their research results did not contain any knowledge in other scientific disciplines or even beyond the immediate purpose of the research ( test, qualification, appointment, etc.) as would be used outside of literary studies or could be useful to solve social problems.

Thus, the study of literature could develop into a normal science in the sense of Thomas S. Kuhn, not only their requirements but also its object must be re- determined by the representative of the empirical literature considers. Therefore, the cognitive interest of the empirical literature is not so much the " literary works of art " rather than the human actions that have to do with literary phenomena in the broadest sense, such as the production, mediation, reception and processing of literature.

Concept of literature

The Empirical Literature defines the term " literature " is not society from literary text, document or work of art here, but as a system action. "Literature" is described as a network of actions of competitors (" actants ") of the " action system literature ": Authors, readers, critics, publishers, etc. These actions can be studied using empirical methods. If you, however, makes the literature of art to the main subject of literature and its interpretation for the main task, one is by the representative of the empirical literature considers the problem of an unclear concept of science and, consequently, a vast methodological pluralism, which is the opposite of a normal scientific research tradition, critical rationality sets of argument, empirical verification and intersubjective verifiability / falsifiability.