​Literature yields substantial potential for sociological inquiry. Three examples, on the processing of difficult and stigmatizing pasts through literature, on the work of Franz Kafka, and on a famous and infamous 19th century German children’s book are these:

• Joachim J. Savelsberg. 2021. "Writing biography in the face of cultural trauma: Nazi descent and the management of spoiled identities." American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Vol. 10, No.1, pp. 34-64.
• Joachim J. Savelsberg. 2011. “Franz Kafka: Bureaucracy, Law and Abuses of the ‘Iron Cage’.” Pp. 45-53 in: Sociological Insights of Great Thinkers, edited by Ch. Edling & J. Rydgren. Santa Barbara, et al.: Praeger.
• Joachim J. Savelsberg. 1996. "Struwwelpeter at One Hundred and Fifty: Norms, Control, and Discipline in the Civilizing Process." The Lion and the Unicorn , Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 181-200. 

In the early 1990s and following years, inspired by the radical changes in Eastern Europe, I wrote a few pieces on socialist law and the transition from state socialism to democracy. Several publications can be found in my CV (see separate link on this site).