ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a socio-historical perspective on the differentiation of the literary field within the intellectual field. This undertaking also requires a transnational approach, as literary works, genres and forms circulated across languages, and were appropriated by hybridization with local repertoires and materials. The chapter explains the notions that help to bridge literary analysis with the history and sociology of ideas, first that of worldview, and then those of discourse and representations, before discussing the question of the relationship between literature and truth and situating literature between doxa and episteme. It proposes the notion of axiological operator in order to grasp the moral performativity of the systems of opposition that structure the underlying worldview in texts, and that transcend the boundaries of fields, thus connecting the literary field to the broader intellectual field and vice versa. The chapter focuses on the interpretation these texts are given in the reception process.
