How can the study of literature be scientific?

Literary theory, the systematic study of literature, has
broadened in the last century into an interdisciplinary study. It now can involve
history, politics, culture, psychology, aesthetics, philosophy, economics and feminism.
The list goes on. Most of these are social sciences, but
physical science also a part at times. Psychology involves neurology and cognitive
functions, economics involves history and trade, and feminism involves social and gender
interaction. This is all part of the idea that our social lives inform how we think
about the world and subsequently what we write about. So, literary theory is not just
about literature anymore. It’s also about
us.

The study of literature used to be
limited to the “great works” of the literary canon. In the 19th century, more critics
and theorists, literary and cultural, noticed how this reflected the general social
exclusion of women and minorities. The canon began to expand. Literary criticism still
primarily praised “great works” and “literariness,” but the concept of literature also
began to diversify socially. Then it would expand and
differentiate.

Today, there are literary theorists who
study poetry, prose, fiction and non-fiction. But some also study advertising, film,
television and political discourse. Some theorists even interpret cultural and
historical events as texts. Let’s say you are a literary theorist who specializes in New
Historicism, Political Science, Psychology and Anthropology. You could interpret recent
events in Egypt just as you could interpret a recent Egyptian
novel.

Overall, the point is that literary theory has
become broader and intersciplinary. New Historicism, Feminism and Marxism look at the
ways history, gender politics and economics shape our social lives and how our social
lives shape how and what we write. This is an artistic and scientific
endeavor.

At the same time that literary theory was
branching out in these ways, you can also trace the development of Formalism (New
Criticism) and, to some extent, Structuralism. This was the development of the
increasingly scientific study of the textuality of literature. By textuality, I mean
what makes literature different from ordinary speech or something like advertising. The
Formalists attempted to identify the parts, archetypes, metaphors, tropes, prosody,
style, themes, etc. of all literature. They were attempting a very systematic study of
what literature is made of. This was very popular at the
time and very effective for determining “literature” from other kinds of writing. But it
was limiting in its scope and some view it as socially irresponsible. Thankfully, the
expansion of literary theory I described above followed quickly and broadened the
scientific study to include social sciences with that textual
study.

Literature will never be completely scientific.
Today, literary theory uses scientific approaches in conjunction with artistic
approaches.