The Anthropologist as Writer: Genres and Contexts in the Twenty-First Century

Writing is crucial to anthropology, but which genres are anthropologists expected to master in the 21st century? This book explores how anthropological writing shapes the intellectual content of the discipline and academic careers. First, chapters identify the different writing genres and contexts anthropologists actually engage with. Second, this book argues for the usefulness and necessity of taking seriously the idea of writing as a craft and of writing across and within genres in new ways. Although academic writing is an anthropologist’s primary genre, they also write in many others, from drafting administrative texts and filing reports to composing ethnographically inspired journalism and fiction.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables Acknowledgements Introducing the Anthropologist as Writer: Across and Within Genres Helena Wulff PART I: THE ROLE OF WRITING IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL CAREERS Chapter 1. The Necessity of Being a Writer in Anthropology Today Dominic Boyer Chapter 2. Reading, Writing, and Recognition in the Emerging Academy Don Brenneis Chapter 3. O Anthropology, Where Art Thou? An Auto-Ethnography of Proposals Sverker Finnström Chapter 4. The Craft of Editing: Anthropology’s Prose and Qualms Brian Moeran Chapter 5. The Anglicization of Anthropology: Opportunities and Challenges Máiréad Nic Craith PART II: ETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING Chapter 6. The Anthropologist as Storyteller Alma Gottlieb Chapter 7. Writing for the Future Paul Stoller Chapter 8. Life-writing: Anthropological Knowledge, Boundary-Making, and the Experiential Narmala Halstead Chapter 9. Chekhov as Ethnographic Muse Kirin Narayan PART III: REACHING OUT: POPULAR WRITING AND JOURNALISM Chapter 10. On Some Nice Benefits and One Big Challenge of The Second File Anette Nyqvist Chapter 11. The Writer as Anthropologist Oscar Hemer Chapter 12. Writing Together: Tensions and Joy between Scholars and Activists Eva-Maria Hardtmann, Vincent Manoharan, Urmila Devi, Jussi Eskola and Swarna Sabrina Francis PART IV: WRITING ACROSS GENRES Chapter 13. Fiction and Anthropological Understanding: A Cosmopolitan Vision Nigel Rapport Chapter 14. On Timely Appearances: Anthropology, Art, Literature Mattias Viktorin Chapter 15. Digital Narratives in Anthropology Paula Uimonen Chapter 16. Writing Otherwise Ulf Hannerz Index

About the Author :
Helena Wulff is Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. Among her publications are the monographs Ballet across Borders (1998, Bloomsbury), Dancing at the Crossroads (2007, Berghahn), and Rhythms of Writing (2017, Bloomsbury).

Review :
“Overall, the collection should be a mandatory reference for all working ethnographers in the social sciences and required reading in all graduate courses on ethnographic methods.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI) “Due to the volume’s overall approach to the writing process as part of the profession, the chapters offer insightful observations for scholars in both early and later stages of their careers… The strength of the edited volume is that each chapter takes a very concrete situation as departure point, from perspectives such as journalism, administration, publishing, activism or funding. These are the basis for wider observations about challenges and opportunities for the writer – the anthropologist – to take into account. As such, it is an extremely valuable resource for anthropologists and ethnographers working in academia.” • Anthropological Journal of European Cultures (AJEC) “This well-written collection of essays is not merely a programmatic statement about the need for anthropologists to experiment with genres, but indicates how it can be done. It succeeds in showing just as much as telling, with examples ranging from the thought-provoking to the entertaining.” • Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo