Comments on: Fiction and Anthropology

By: Robert Moore

Robert Moore — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 11:28:23 +0000

Nicely written and thought-provoking post, Rachel. As a twist on the fiction and ethnography issue, I suspect I am not alone in using novels as assigned readings in culture area classes. In my China course I used Ba Jin’s “Family” and Ha Jin’s “Waiting.” For Japan, I’ve used Tanizaki’s “Naomi.”

By: The Omniscient Narrator | Savage Minds Backup

The Omniscient Narrator | Savage Minds Backup — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 05:33:45 +0000

[…] recent post on fiction and anthropology was in my mind while I read this book because, even though it is journalistic non-fiction, Boo […]

By: “Anthropology Co-Citation Graph… Anthro roundup… | Erkan's Field Diary

Thu, 05 Sep 2013 07:21:04 +0000

[…] Fiction and Anthropology […]

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 03:20:28 +0000

Just want to note the dilemma that pits protecting the identities of the people whose lives we study, when revealing who they are might harm them, against the notion of collaborative ethnography, in which the anthropologist shares the authorial spotlight with his collaborators.

In my own case, working with Japanese advertising creatives, the people I study very much want to be named. They live for public recognition that leads to more and more interesting work. But they do not, of course, want me to say anything that would damage their reputations. Now my problem is that of a journalist writing about any public figure: When is it appropriate to go off-record or conceal a source? When is either selling out?

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 02:25:00 +0000

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll have to check those out. As for your second comment, creating composites is a strategy people use in ethnographies, and I often wonder how far authors go in doing so. Keeping true to events, perhaps, but merging different people into one? But if events can’t be reported on without giving away identities, might those events be altered to the point that they also become fictional?

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 02:17:29 +0000

I like the idea of theoretical storytelling. Making the theory part of the narrative would be an interesting technique to attempt. There are journalists who have written highly ethnographic accounts of cultural phenomena that are widely read, but not anthropologists so much…

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 02:09:26 +0000

Thanks, Ryan. I agree that writing should be part of our training. Actively working on writing wasn’t a part of my graduate experience, although I appreciated the many articles and books spawned by the Writing Culture movement.

By: quentinlewis

quentinlewis — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 17:48:41 +0000

Two thoughts
1.)Samuel R. Delany’s Neveryon books are great “sword and sorcery” novels that are set during the period of the origins of city-states in Mesopotamia. Delany clearly read the archaeological and anthropological literature on the non-state/state transition, and used it to write about institutional formation, power, and gender.

2.)I wonder about fiction as a sub-genre of ethnographic writing. I had a colleague (who has since sadly left the discipline) who was interested in using fiction strategically, as a way to write about politically fraught situations where naming individuals and institutions directly would’ve been dangerous. Of course, this is difficult ethical terrain, at least as far as accurate representation is concerned, but I wonder whether there is room for it within our toolkit.

By: John Postill

John Postill — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 06:43:20 +0000

PS. Even a literature review, conventionally regarded as a tedious but unavoidable scholarly chore, can be turned into an engaging narrative.

By: John Postill

John Postill — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 06:37:26 +0000

An excellent post Rachel, many thanks. I’m wondering whether you – and other Savage Minds readers – have any thoughts on possible ways in which we may be able to weave theory and narrative in our writings. You mention the jarring juxtaposition of an “ethereal passage of text, perhaps a haunting description of a person or a place” with theoretical passages that “[jolt us] into reality” and “yank us down to earth”.

In fact, I would want both the theoretical and the empirical to keep us grounded in the actualities of the social worlds and historical processes being described. I’m particularly interested in what we might call theoretical storytelling, i.e. in using the human love of narrative to present complex theoretical arguments in ways that will not send readers scurrying for cover. Perhaps we need to find time to develop further the genre of the anthropological essay, a genre in which the theoretical and the ethnographic are skilfully woven together.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 04:33:16 +0000

“…and I have always been interested in the ways that anthropology and literature inform one another. In particular, what can anthropologists learn from fiction?”

Amen to that. Thanks for this great post. I have always felt that anthro training could use a heavier dose of writing and literature. Not as an extra, but a fundamental aspect of training anthropologists…since we produce texts, we might as well get deeper into the process of making them. I think we should emphasize writing as much as participant observation, interviews, etc. Anyway, glad to see this come up here on SM.