The basic problematic issue confronting us in the study of black American writers and literature is that of determining whether we can identify the factors which conduce to the development of given social role conceptions, since the latter determines intellectual and artistic orientations to reality. In general, the problem is that of ascertaining the extent to which these roles are the consequences of common socialization or of concrete social relations. Once we have identified a writer's social role, we expect a convergence in stylistic orientation between his and that of other writers who possess similar role conceptions. Analysis proceeds by empirical inquiry into the variety of structural contexts within which writers are located from one historical period to another; and identification of the process by which the writer's social role is an outcome of given types of structural and historical locations. In general, the issue is that of the greater degree of instability of the literary artist's role, which is the consequence of its weak institutionalization in modern American society. By treating the issue of intellectual and social role this way, the sociology of knowledge achieves sharper differentiation of the occupationally problematic mandates in which these roles consist, and clear perception of the variety of references to which such roles are oriented. (Author/JM)