Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter
Through a reading of Amitav Ghosh’s 2004 novel The Hungry Tide, the article proposes a preliminary attempt to combine anthropology with world literature, a concept that has recently attracted significant attention from the fields of postcolonial studies and comparative literature alike. Firstly,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Il Tolomeo |
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| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-18-16-6 |
| _version_ | 1797646090236854272 |
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| author | De Capitani, Lucio |
| author_facet | De Capitani, Lucio |
| author_sort | De Capitani, Lucio |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Through a reading of Amitav Ghosh’s 2004 novel The Hungry Tide, the article proposes a preliminary attempt to combine anthropology with world literature, a concept that has recently attracted significant attention from the fields of postcolonial studies and comparative literature alike. Firstly, I argue that world literature is best seen as a number of overlapping and/or divergent projects, and that it thrives if tackled through a plurality of approaches. Secondly, I suggest one possible approach to world literature, employing John Comaroff’s definition of anthropology as a discipline characterised by a few closely interrelated epistemic operations that qualify ethnographic fieldwork. Lastly, I map Comaroff’s epistemic operations onto The Hungry Tide to unpack the levels of anthropological sophistication of this novel. I advocate the revised concept of ethnographic novel that results from this reading – the idea of a novel of the ethnographic encounter – as a useful point of departure for a project of world literature.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T14:57:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0f651e02484b4e189fafd5b746c09397 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2499-5975 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T14:57:30Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Il Tolomeo |
| spelling | doaj.art-0f651e02484b4e189fafd5b746c093972023-10-30T08:17:58ZengFondazione Università Ca’ FoscariIl Tolomeo2499-59752016-12-0118110.14277/2499-5975/Tol-18-16-6journal_article_598Exploring the Ethnographic EncounterDe Capitani, Lucio0Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia Through a reading of Amitav Ghosh’s 2004 novel The Hungry Tide, the article proposes a preliminary attempt to combine anthropology with world literature, a concept that has recently attracted significant attention from the fields of postcolonial studies and comparative literature alike. Firstly, I argue that world literature is best seen as a number of overlapping and/or divergent projects, and that it thrives if tackled through a plurality of approaches. Secondly, I suggest one possible approach to world literature, employing John Comaroff’s definition of anthropology as a discipline characterised by a few closely interrelated epistemic operations that qualify ethnographic fieldwork. Lastly, I map Comaroff’s epistemic operations onto The Hungry Tide to unpack the levels of anthropological sophistication of this novel. I advocate the revised concept of ethnographic novel that results from this reading – the idea of a novel of the ethnographic encounter – as a useful point of departure for a project of world literature. http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-18-16-6Amitav Ghosh. Anthropology. The Hungry Tide. World Literature |
| spellingShingle | De Capitani, Lucio Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter Il Tolomeo Amitav Ghosh. Anthropology. The Hungry Tide. World Literature |
| title | Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter |
| title_full | Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter |
| title_short | Exploring the Ethnographic Encounter |
| title_sort | exploring the ethnographic encounter |
| topic | Amitav Ghosh. Anthropology. The Hungry Tide. World Literature |
| url | http://doi.org/10.14277/2499-5975/Tol-18-16-6 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT decapitanilucio exploringtheethnographicencounter |