Empirical Literary Scholarship and the Literary System of S. J. Schmidt

Abstract

The article provides an overview of the theoretical origins of the empirical and systemic investigation of literature, formulated by the group of scolars centered around Siegfried J Schmidt. It also points out some typical achievements of the empirical literary scholarship (ELS), particularly with regard to the Duch sociological empirical school. The survey of the origins of the ELS is intended to limit the possibilities of an oversimplified and inadequate reception of the ELS in Slovenia. At the conclusion there is a short survey of the ELS, of oppurtunities that ELS offers to the Slovene literary scholarship, and the issue of interpretaion within its framework.