Social Texts and Context: Literature and Social Psychology

First published in 1984, Social Texts and Context illustrates the ways in which familiar psychological concepts – femininity, the environment, groups, the self – are constructed in discourse. Novels by Thomas Hardy, Barbara Cartland, Doris Lessing, C. P. Snow, Charles Dickens and Robert Musil are examined, and the theoretical approaches of Roland Barthes, Rom Harre, Jonathan Culler, Henri Tajfel, Irving Janis and Paul Willis are discussed. Development in literary theory – such as semiology and deconstruction and in theories of social action – such as ethogenics and discourse analysis – make it difficult to treat literary and psychological texts as a neutral medium of communication. Instead, texts should be seen in terms of their fundamental constructive role in the organization of social life. As the authors demonstrate, contemporary life in both its personal and professional spheres is hedged around by discourse, conversations, newspaper articles, novels, scientific reports. This book will be of interest to students of literature and psychology.