Etnografisk fiktion

Abstract

In this text we introduce this special issue of Kulturella Perspektiv that addresses the relationship between ethnography and fiction. Could ethnographic fiction serve as an alternative way to communicate research results? Can it help us to reach other audiences outside of academia? How can fantasy and fiction help us in the quest for new knowledge? These are the main questions posed and answered in this introductory article where we highlight some important contributions to this field in ethnology and anthropology. Revisiting concepts such as Clifford Geertz ’thick descriptions’ and ’faction’ the article suggests that ethnographic fiction is part of a tradition in ethnographic work that problematize the division between fact and fiction, reason and affect, as well as objectivity and subjectivity. Scholars that work in the ethnographic tradition has long since acknowledged researchers’ interpretations and subjectivity as a part of our knowledge production. Qualitative research in general, and ethnographic research in particular, would be impossible without an active research subject that thinks, feels and engages in the field of research. The article discusses examples of ethnographic research that engages with alternative ways of writing up the results and communicating the findings. We suggest that a creative approach to writing might reach a new and larger audience and help establish the importance of ethnographic work.