Contact Info

For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian

Course syllabus

SA 317 Sociology of art forms

Essay  

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.

Selected encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks

For encyclopedias on photography, music, dance, poetry or literature, try the "Background information" pages of Contemporary Arts and English Literature

• The Grove Dictionary of Art [online or print]
• Grove Art Online
• Oxford Art Online
• Oxford Music Online 
• The Routledge companion to aesthetics
• Routledge international handbook of the sociology of art and culture [print]

 

Journal articles

How to Find Journal Articles" tutorial.  If the full-text of the article is not available, use the "Get@SFU" link to find it.

Sociological databases

Sociological Abstracts -  theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science

Try keyword search for phrase:  

"sociology of art" OR "sociology of aesthetics"

"sociology of music"

"sociology of literature"

"sociology of dance"

Try searching for the name of an artist, writer or musician and the term, "Sociology":

Rodin and sociology

Mozart and sociology 

Social Sciences Full Text - broad coverage of social science journals

Try keyword search for phrase:  "sociology of art"

Try subject search:  DE "Visual sociology" or DE "Art & society"

Art databases

Art Full Text [formerly known as Art Index] -- Indexing and full text for journal articles on all aspects and periods of art

Try keyword search:   painting AND sociology

Try subject search:  DE "Visual sociology" or DE "Art & society"

MLA International Bibliography - Contains citations to scholarly literature in literature, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, linguistics, modern languages, folklore, as well as historical aspects of printing and publishing, rhetoric and composition and the theory and practice of teaching language and literature.

Try keyword search for phrase:  

"Sociology of literature"

"Sociology of poetry"

Music Index - Index to reviews and journal articles on all aspects of music.

Try keyword search: "sociology of music"

Try subject search:  DE "Sociomusicology"

Find books 

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue

   You can also use  SFU Library Catalogue: Advanced Search

Find books by title

You can either search for book using "Browse by title" link. Just search for the "title" of the book.

Keyword searches for sociology of art

• Hegel AND (art OR aesthetics)
• "modern art" AND (social OR society) AND (Hegel OR Marx*)
• "sociology of art"
• Using "Advanced Search
  • "Title" "contains": "art and society" OR "arts and society" OR "sociology of art"
    • Above search provides journal articles, books and book chapters

You can further limit the search results by using "Subject" (left-hand column)

Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words

Note:  For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")

Books by Hegel, Marx and Engels 

You can use "Browse by author" search to find books by a particular person.  Use "Browse" search and change the default "title" to "author", and then enter the "Last name" and then the "First name" of a person.

• Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
• Marx, Karl
• Engels, Frederich

Books about Hegel, Marx and Engels (biographical or critical)

You can use "Browse by subject" search to find books by a particular person.  Use "Browse" search and change the default "title" to "subject", and then enter the "Last name" and then the "First name" of a person.

• Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
• Marx, Karl
• Engels Frederich

Browse by "subject" for books on "sociology of art"

Check subject headings of relevant titles in your list and click on the "subject" links.  In addition, in Catalogue Search you can "browse by subject" to find books on a topic.  Examples, below.

• Aesthetics
• Art and society
• Arts and society

Selected books on sociology of arts

• Aesthetics and the sociology of art [print]
• Art and the artist in society
• Arts in place : the arts, the urban and social practice
• Bourdieu in question : new directions in French sociology of art [print]
• Constructing a sociology of the arts, also in print
• Images of community : Durkheim, social systems and the sociology of art [print]
• Public life of the arts in America [print]
• Socially engaged art in contemporary China : voices from below
• Sociology of art, also in print
• Sociology of art : a reader, also in [print]
• Sociology of art : ways of seeing [print]
• Sociology looks at the arts [print]
• Taking back the boulevard : art, activism and gentrification in Los Angeles

Required readings 

• Hegel, on the arts : selections from G.W.F. Hegel's Aesthetics, or the philosophy of fine art / abridged and translated with an introduction by Henry Paolucci ; preface to new edition by Anne Paolucci. [print]
• The philosophy of Hegel : a systematic exposition / by W. T. Stace. [print]
• Art and society : essays in Marxist aesthetics / tr. by Maro Riofrancos. [print]

Art museums and galleries

• The Archive
• The British Museum, London
• New British Artists
• The Museum of Modern Art
• The Tate, various locations UK
• National Gallery, London
• The Guggenheim, various locations worldwide
• Royal Academy, London
• The Imperial War Museum

Use Inter-Library Loans service to obtaining material not at SFU

Please use the Library's Inter-Library Loans Service to borrow books or to obtain journal articles which are not in the SFU Library Collection (no charge).

To place an ILL request see Request items from other libraries.

Writing help

• Student Learning Commons
  • Writing for university

Selected resources on writing essays:

• A guide to writing sociology papers 
• The Sociology Student Writer's Manual and Reader's Guide
• The writer's handbook for sociology
• Writing ethnography 
• Writing for social scientists : How to start and finish your thesis, book, or article
  • Access to this book is limited to three-simultaneous users
• Writing up qualitative research