Fiction / Ethnography (+ the space between)

What is the relationship between fiction and ethnography, story and fact, creativity and objectivity? This course will consider how fiction and ethnography can each inform yet trouble the other, beginning from the premise that both involve a kind of magic. Using the same building blocks – seemingly humble and ostensibly available to all --writers of fiction and ethnography alike create what one contemporary author has called “language-made hallucinations, fabrications that persuade us to believe in them.” Yet these “fabrications” often have different stakes and use different methods for revealing human “truths.” We’ll explore such divergences and alignments by seeing what is provoked when juxtaposing fiction, ethnography, and even other genres of writing (poetry, journalism, creative non-fiction, etc.). Writing assignments for the course, as befits the content, are flexible with respect to genre.