Sociological Imagination and Literary Intuition

The paper argues that if imagination is paramount for sociology’s status and if literary intuition is a source of such imagination, we should rethink the value of literary insight for social analyses. It reviews the changing relationship between literature and sociology and shows how sociology can draw from literature as a starting point for understanding the social world and a way of invigorating sociological imagination. By framing the digital age as a current moment of change that has reconfigured the relation between sociology and literature, it illuminates the impact of challenges faced by both sociology and literature. It argues for the validity of literature for sociological use in the digital future and calls for more reflection on the utility and scope of the linkage. It asserts the literary inspired way of doing sociology, which takes advantage of the chance provided by the e-revolution, is one of ways forward for sociology.