The Formalists' "Sociological Method"

I have had occasion to speak both orally and in writing about the untenable nature of the term "sociological method." "In essence," I wrote in my article "Essential Premises of Marxist Literary Scholarship" [Neobkhodimye predposylki marksistskogo literaturovedeniia],1 "there is no such thing as a sociological method, nor can there be, since there are as many sociological methods as there are sociologies. We know that there are idealistic systems of sociology, and they certain cannot serve as the basis of the sociological method known as Marxist sociology. The Marxist method should be known not as a sociological method but rather as a method of historical materialism. The Marxist method is the method of historical materialism and not at all that of sociology in general."