Frühe Literatursoziologie und Barockforschung: Arnold Hirschs Verbürgerlichungsthese und ihr wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Kontext

Abstract To define more precisely what “literary sociology” means around 1930 (and what it is capable of), the article looks at one particular encounter of sociological theory and literary material: the scholarship on the baroque. Particularly two traits of this specific form of literary sociology are brought into focus: its relation to the antipositivist “Geistesgeschichte” that precedes it and its role in delineating a new form of literary history that delimits the role of the author. Particular attention is given to the writings of the scholar Arnold Hirsch (1901–1954) because they offer a particularly sophisticated reflection of the forms and functions of literary sociology.