| Summary: | This article discusses, from a theoretical point of view, the paradoxical relationship
between literature and society. On the one hand, it criticizes a reading of literature
with a sociologizing bias disseminated by the culturalist critique, but tries to retrieve
positive aspects mentioned by authors such as Mignolo, Moreiras, Polar and Bhabba.
On the other hand, it proposes a reading of literarature that asks about what it means
to represent when one is in the literary realm. Thus, it poses the idea of thinking on
the basis of the concept of paratopia, suggested by Maingueneau in the early 90s in
the French Analysis of Discourse. In Cultural Studies, some concepts by Homi Bhabba
are reconsidered, as they offer a theoretical point of view aligned with an idea of
representation that does not take for granted a smooth or simplified passage from the
literary text to the social or from the social to the text. Nowadays the relationship
between society and literary discourse remains open. The 20th century has tried various
theoretical solutions: literary structuralism believed in immanence, a post-structuralism
crossed immanence and culture. Later on a certain literary critique seems to emphasize
the documental aspect of literary works, giving up their aesthetical character and the
differentiated conditions of social functioning that it creates. So, this article ends up
being an invitation to reflect on and dialogue with thinkers from other areas of social
studies who intend to deal with literary texts in their history, politics, sociology and
culture works and who, with their theoretical background and practices, will be able to
produce new reflections on the issue raised.
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