Ethnographic Writing

3 credits · Graduate credit

This course considers the history, politics, and possibilities of ethnographic writing. We will discuss a variety of ethnographic genres, including literary journalism, experimental ethnography, feminist ethnography, travel accounts, the memoir, poetry of witness, investigative reporting, documentary image-texts, the ethnographic novel, and autobiographical criticism. Our focus will be on the dilemmas of writing narratives of place and voice. We will analyze a range of textural strategies, including monologue, dialogue, first person narrative, third person narrative, flashback, different methods of quoting or paraphrasing "informants," and descriptive accounts of other places. In addition to familiarizing ourselves with these literary genres and textual strategies. I want to provide a workshop environment for members of the class to strengthen their own writing and embark on major ethnographic projects of their own.