The Anthropology of Literary Reading: Methodological Issues

Associations between anthropology and literature are usually expressed in either of the two aspects: as a literary anthropology or anthropology of literature. The present text offers a discussion on a third area where these disciplines can meet - namely, anthropology of literary reading which focuses on empirical readers. I start my presentation of this approach from situating anthropology of literary reading amongst other domains dealing with empirical recipient (i.e. psychology and sociology of literature). The following sections methodologically analyse psychological, sociological and anthropological accounts of literary reception, focusing on the manner in which these approaches reciprocally complement one another. I subsequently show the opportunities provided by anthropology of literature in the field of analysis of reception, owed to inclusion in the research horizon of issues connected with the context of reading and its role in recipients' everyday life. I conclude by considering potential usefulness of such research to literary science.