The Modern Novel from a Sociological Perspective: Towards a Strategic Use of the Notion of Genres

The new literary form created by the English writers of that period strikes one as radically innovative both because of its literary qualities and because of its social function. Since the new genre was capable of recording the significant socio-cultural changes of the time, the novel, according to Watt, emerged not only as a literary genre, as one form of art among others, but as a privileged cultural product. Since the imaginary world created by the novel reflects and reproduces the modern social condition, that is, the image of personhood as a selfenclosed subjectivity, the question is what type of narrative literature would be capable of resisting the novel and providing a viable alternative to it.