Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov

170 Pages·2012·1.47 MB·English

by  Kirin Narayan

Alive in the Writing

Kirin Narayan
Alive
i n t h e
Writing
crafting ethnography
in the company of chekhov
The University of Chicago Press
chicago and london
kirin narayan is the author of Storytellers, Saints,
and Scoundrels, Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon,
the novel Love, Stars, and All That, and the memoir My
Family and Other Saints, also published by the University
of Chicago Press. A former Guggenheim fellow, she is
professor of anthropology at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2012 by Kirin Narayan
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56818-8 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56819-5 (paper)
isbn- 10: 0-226-56818-0 (cloth)
isbn- 10: 0-226-56819-9 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Narayan, Kirin.
Alive in the writing : crafting ethnography in the
company of Chekhov / Kirin Narayan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56818-8 (alk. paper)
isbn- 10: 0-226-56818-0 (alk. paper)
isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56819-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn- 10: 0-226-56819-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Ethnology—Authorship. 2. Creative nonfi ction—
Authorship. 3. Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860–
1904—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Ethnology in
literature. I. Title.
gn307.7.n37 2012
305.8—dc23
2011023619
o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso
z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
In memory of two grandmothers—
Alice Marie Fish Kinzinger
who taught me how to read,
to write
and to fi nd pleasure in crafting words
and
Kamlabai Ramji
who never read, never wrote,
and who confi dently fl ung words
into the bright colors of stories
Of Chekhov Tolstoi said:
“He is a strange writer: he throws words
about as if at random, and yet every-
thing is alive. And what understanding!
He never has any superfl uous details;
every one of them is either necessary
or beautiful.”
A. B. Goldenveizer, Talks with Tolstoi
Contents
Preface: Alive in the Writing ix
1: story and theory 1
Taking Stock * First Impressions *
Scenes, Summaries, Events * Situation, Story, Theory *
Chekhov as Ethnographic Muse
2: place 23
The Scene of Writing * Passage to More Than a Place *
The Feel of a Place * Others’ Perceptions *
Landscapes Transformed * Wide Angles and Close-ups *
Painful Places * The Meeting Place of Texts
3: person 45
Types and Individuals * The Embodied Person *
Lives Told by Things * Inner Biography *
Nonhuman Persons * Imagining across Time
4: voice 67
How Voices Sound * Key Words, Key Concepts *
Transcribing Conversation and Performance *
Quotation and Paraphrase * Pauses, Guarded Words,
Words in Veiled Forms * Cultivating Your Own Voice
5: self 93
Narrating * Explaining * Evoking *
Transforming * Reframing * Connecting
Postscript: Writing to Be Alive 111
Acknowledgments 123
Notes 125
Readings and References 135
Index 145

Alive in the Writing
preface
When words gather together with energy, other places, other people,
and other voices stir in a parallel life. The writer can feel more alive
too, alert and connected to a welling inner source that fl ows outward
toward other lives. This at least is the ideal. But words sometimes re-
fuse to be summoned, leaving a writer sluggish and adrift, or worse,
alone and depressed. To fi nd inspiration, purpose, and nurturing
company, a writer might look around for a writing group, a workshop,
a class, or even a book like this: a book about writing.
I found the seeds for this book at the crossroads of ethnographic
writing and creative nonfi ction. As a cultural anthropologist and
folklorist, I have for years been reading, writing, and teaching ethnog-
raphies—accounts that closely document and try to gain insight into
people’s lives as they unfold in particular situations and corners of
the world. Since I was interested in writing itself, I also began teach-
ing classes and workshops about writing ethnography. Ethnography