Literatursoziologie als Kunstsoziologie und die Rolle des Ästhetischen. Beobachtungen zur Disziplinentektonik im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts, am Beispiel Heinz Sauermanns und René Königs

Abstract This paper explores the sociology of art as a subfield of disciplines other than sociology in the first few decades of the 20th century. Special attention is paid to the so-called “allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft” as a conceptional framework for the sociology of art, as described by Heinz Sauermann and René König. It is argued that notions of the artwork’s aesthetic properties, traditionally subject to philosophical aesthetics, co-determine the scope and range of sociological approaches to art. This is also the case with the sociology of literature.