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<p>I propose a constructive dialogue between the civil sphere theory (CST) established by Jeffrey C. Alexander and my recent developments in the cultural sociology of literature. In the theoretical part, I conceptualize the “structures of feeling” concerning both Alexander’s use in the CST and Raymond William’s original use for studying literature. I embrace the structures of feeling as the main building block of a new <i>model of literary communication in the civil sphere</i>. The thrust of my argument is that civil values that are latently present in the nondiscursive structures of feeling can be encoded within fictional works employing aesthetic devices, such as rhythm and mood of the text or metaphors. When read, the novel’s internal structure enters the interaction with its social surroundings through the reading experience, which <i>re</i>-constructs the structures of feeling so that the readers feel them as intense and pressing as the original ones. I access the reading experience via the triangulation between the text and the social contexts of production and reception. In the analysis, I investigate the nondiscursive experiential mediation of civil values on three cases of literary-civil mobilization: the novels by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (The discomfort of evening, Faber and Faber, 2018), Akwaeke Emezi (The Death of Vivek Oji, Riverhead Books, 2020), and Édouard Louis (The End of Eddy, Harvill Secker, 2014).</p>

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Write it out loud? Civil engagement through reading fiction

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年8月4日

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  • Jan Váňa

摘要

I propose a constructive dialogue between the civil sphere theory (CST) established by Jeffrey C. Alexander and my recent developments in the cultural sociology of literature. In the theoretical part, I conceptualize the “structures of feeling” concerning both Alexander’s use in the CST and Raymond William’s original use for studying literature. I embrace the structures of feeling as the main building block of a new model of literary communication in the civil sphere. The thrust of my argument is that civil values that are latently present in the nondiscursive structures of feeling can be encoded within fictional works employing aesthetic devices, such as rhythm and mood of the text or metaphors. When read, the novel’s internal structure enters the interaction with its social surroundings through the reading experience, which re-constructs the structures of feeling so that the readers feel them as intense and pressing as the original ones. I access the reading experience via the triangulation between the text and the social contexts of production and reception. In the analysis, I investigate the nondiscursive experiential mediation of civil values on three cases of literary-civil mobilization: the novels by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (The discomfort of evening, Faber and Faber, 2018), Akwaeke Emezi (The Death of Vivek Oji, Riverhead Books, 2020), and Édouard Louis (The End of Eddy, Harvill Secker, 2014).