Cultural Sociology as a Style

Considering the Works of Shun Inoue

Abstract

Shun Inoue, a leading cultural sociologist, calls his own work an “essay.” In addition, Inoue’s texts have a style that appears transparent and neutral at first glance. In these two respects, Inoue’s work serves as a model for considering “style” in cultural sociology. In this paper, we consider the significance of the essay style for the field of cultural sociology through the identification of the（hidden） stylistic features of Inoue’s texts.

The following three stylistic features of Inoue’s texts are extracted.

（1） “Dynamic equilibrium and playful distance” : Inoue’s texts show a movement of sensing a dynamic equilibrium in the subject. This gesture embedded in the style pushes the viewer’s perspective to an overlooking position and enables a playful distance from the subject.（2） “Shift of perspective” : in Inoue’s texts, the technique of shifting the perspective, which transforms the subject’s meaning, is employed here and there, and the frequent use of the expression “X as Y” is a sign of this technique.（3） “The rhetoric of concession” : in Inoue’s texts, the concessionary sentence structure “indeed... but...” appears repeatedly; this is a rhetoric that functions to bridge the two features（1）and（2）and to produce a propositional assertion.

Although the “essay” has somewhat of a bad reputation in the recent swing back to positivism in cultural sociology, Inoue’s “essay” is useful precisely as an antidote to the fixed view of it.