Novel approaches to anthropology : contributions to literary anthropology / edited by Marilyn Cohen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cohen, Marilyn, 1952- editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature and anthropology.

Fiction--History and criticism.

Fiction.

Physical Description:

vii, 258 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2013]

Summary:

This volume of interdisciplinary essays reflect current contributions to literary anthropology. Novel Approaches to Anthropology: Contributions to Literary Anthropology showcases the myriad ways that anthropologists bring their disciplinary perspectives, theories, concepts, and pedagogical strategies to interpreting fiction and travel writing written in the past and present. The authors integrate insights from the reflexive deconstructive turn in anthropology and from critical Marxist and feminist approaches that ground interpretation in the political, economic, and social constraints and experiences of everyday life. The contributors share the view that fiction, like all artistic expression, is rooted in specific historical and cultural contexts. Literature, like all artistic expression, stimulates a critical imagination by allowing readers to take a fresh look at their own society and culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Anthropological aspects of the novel / Marilyn Cohen

A Shandean description of Frakean "ethnographic behavior" / Ray McDermott

Reading Defoe, the eighteenth century master story-teller / Mary Elizabeth Reeve

"A genuine Victorian oddity": Harriet Martineau's fiction / Marilyn Cohen

Mark Twain's weapon of mass destruction: "The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter" / David Surrey

The Creole speaks: Daniel, Christophine and the other in the wide Sargaso Sea / John Pulis

Ethnografiction and reality in contemporary Irish novels / Helena Wulff

Engaging students' interest through fiction, memoirs and film / Ward Keeler.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739175026

0739175025

OCLC:

833300756