This chapter discusses the entanglements between the history and sociology of literature and intellectual history. It first examines the relationship between literature and knowledge and considers the socio-historical conditions which led to the differentiation of the literary field within the intellectual field. It then turns to notions that help us bridge literary analysis with the history and sociology of ideas, first that of worldview, and then those of discourse and representations, before discussing the question of the relationship between literature and truth and situating literature between doxa and episteme. Finally, the notion of ‘axiological operator’ is proposed in order to grasp the ethical performativity of the systems of opposition that structure the underlying worldview in texts. The interpretation texts are given in the reception process and their various appropriations in time and space are also a heuristic site of observation for the history and sociology of ideas.