American Anthropological Association

Friday, November 16, 2012: 1:45 PM-5:30 PM

Continental 8 (Hilton San Francisco)

On an upsurge since the 1980s “Writing Culture” debate, the anthropology of literature and writing has a long history of border crossings. It involves the role of literature and literary texts in anthropology, and it is concerned with writing as process and form. There is a sense that the writing of fiction, poetry, and drama can offer elements and passages of an ethnographic nature, which in turn speaks to the idea of the writer as ethnographer. The same may be said of literary translations of works by indigenous authors. Literary works of all kinds are frequently included as a particular kind of data in anthropological research, also by anthropologists who do not otherwise take a special interest in literature. Many anthropologists seek out works set in their fieldsite areas by local writers or performers of oral literature, in order to gain further insights into cultural values and social circumstances that are the topics of their research. Such works are also used in teaching and appear on reading lists in general anthropology courses, even in graduate-level seminars. At the same time, inspired by the richness of their ethnography, anthropologists write novels, short stories, creative nonfiction (a genre that is now a staple of most MFA programs in creative writing), poems, memoirs, and detective stories–genres that offer opportunities to tell previously untold stories from the field. To hone and teach skills in these various genres, courses on experimental writing, ethnographic writing, anthropological writing genres, literary translation, even creative writing are now taught by anthropologists. No doubt the “experimental turn” in anthropological writing is influenced by the style and structure of fiction, as well as by poetry, plays, performance and installation art–and, the technology of new media (including the ubiquitous blogging and online “social media”), as well as by indigenous productions. A number of prominent contemporary writers had some anthropological training, but left the academy for careers in fiction (e.g., Amitav Ghosh, Saul Bellow, Kurt Vonnegut), science fiction (Ursula K. LeGuin), poetry (e.g., Gary Snyder, Octavio Paz, Nathaniel Tarn), screenwriting (George Lucas, Joan Campion), or songwriting (e.g. Mick Jagger, Tracy Chapman). Increasingly, literary and reading communities are the objects of study by anthropologists. This panel brings together papers discussing the engagement of anthropology with a variety of literary texts and authors. How can such encounters contribute theoretically to anthropology? What does the crossing of conventional borders between anthropology and literature entail for anthropology’s relationship with other academic disciplines, and for its reach to a wider audience?