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Module Content and Indicative Topics

This module will introduce students to anthropology as the comparative study of cultures and societies through fieldwork and ethnographic writing. Anthropology aims to get to the heart of what makes us human through the cross-cultural study of similarity and difference. But ethnographic writing is not simply a description of social life ‘elsewhere’; it is also a narrative that involves ‘data’ as well as imagination and fiction, and anthropologists have long drawn on literary forms in multiple ways. Conversely, anthropology has shaped fiction and non-fiction writing, not only by providing writers with ethnographic material, but also by questioning Eurocentric forms of knowledge and by showing the extent to which the world may be experienced and understood differently in different cultural and linguistic contexts. This module will introduce you to the different ways in which anthropology and literature have shaped each other in various parts of the world.

The module is particularly well suited to students with an interest in cross-cultural variation, in postcolonial/decolonial questions and in challenging the Eurocentric character of literary criticism.

In class discussions and assignments, you will be encouraged to draw on your own literary knowledge, and to rethink your favourite texts in light of anthropological ideas.

The module will cover the following topics, which may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class:

• Introduction to Anthropology and Literature
• Anthropology and the Francophone African novel
• Interpretive anthropology
• The postmodern turn in ethnographic writing
• Autobiography and the fieldwork memoir
• Anthropology and magic realism
• Poetry and anthropology
• Everyday literacy
• Narratives of migration
• Anthropology, theatre and social drama

Teaching Delivery

The module consists of 10 sessions of 2 hours each, divided between a lecture, short student presentations and a class discussion. You will be required to read at least two of the readings ahead of each class, and to read anthropological texts on a regular basis. You will also be expected to do at least one practical task (e.g. write an ‘arrival scene’ or a short piece based on observation). This module has historically been popular. If you try to register on this module, we would advise exploring additional options, just in case.

By the end of the module, you should have gained:

• A basic knowledge of anthropology’s history since the early 20th century, including of the discipline’s involvement with the colonial project
• A good knowledge of the key ethical, theoretical and methodological questions involved in ethnographic writing
• A good grasp of postmodernism in anthropology
• Basic notions of anthropological analysis
• The ability to rethink known texts in light of anthropological ideas
• Improved skills in oral presentation

Recommended Reading

In preparation for the module, we advise reading the following core texts. These can be found in the ÐÂÏã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹ûLibrary:

• Barber, K. 2007. The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Clifford, J. and G. Marcus (eds). 1986. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Eriksen, T. H. 1993. Small Places, Large Issues. London: Pluto Press.
• Watson, T. 2018. Culture Writing: Literature and Anthropology in the Midcentury Atlantic World. Oxford University Press.
• Wulff, H. (ed.) 2016. The Anthropologist as Writer: Genres and Contexts in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Berghahn.