Don Chisciotte, il problema della realtà e l'uso delle fonti narrative. Riflessioni teorico-metodologiche a partire da Alfred Schutz

The paper is an attempt to assess the potentiality of literary sources for the social sciences. It proposes a connection between the ontological conception of social reality and the methodological possibility to recur to literary narratives for social analysis. The concept of multiple reality (Alfred Schutz) is exemplified by referring chiefly to Schutz' treatment of Miguel Cervantes' novel, Don Quijote. In the concluding remarks, a complex conception of social reality is advocated, able to conceive society both in terms of social facts and social representations. Such ontological attitude may give due relevance to literature as a source of sociological data.