African 926: African Ethnographies

This graduate-level methods seminar is an intensive introduction to reading and writing literary ethnography. Our central question is: in what ways can ethnography be literary, and literature be ethnographic? Taking a discourse-centered approach to culture and to writing as a form of qualitative analysis, we will explore theories and examples of autoethnographies, memoirs, ethnographic fiction, poetry, drama, and literary ethnographies. Our main examples will be writing by Africans and Africanists, but students working in other world areas are welcome. Important themes will include language, voice, dialogic research, transcription, and translation. The course will help students whose primary interests are cultural studies, linguistic anthropology, and second language acquisition to gain expertise in ethnographic research practices and evocative writing.Seminar meetings will involve both discussion of readings and workshopping participants’ writing.