Alive in the writing : crafting ethnography in the company of Chekhov / Kirin Narayan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Narayan, Kirin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860-1904--Criticism and interpretation.

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich.

Ethnology--Authorship.

Ethnology.

Creative nonfiction--Authorship.

Creative nonfiction.

Ethnology in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (170 pages)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2012]

Summary:

Anton Chekhov is revered as a boldly innovative playwright and short story writer-but he wrote more than just plays and stories. In Alive in the Writing-an intriguing hybrid of writing guide, biography, and literary analysis-anthropologist and novelist Kirin Narayan introduces readers to some other sides of Chekhov: his pithy, witty observations on the writing process, his life as a writer through accounts by his friends, family, and lovers, and his venture into nonfiction through his book Sakhalin Island. By closely attending to the people who lived under the appalling conditions of the Russian penal colony on Sakhalin, Chekhov showed how empirical details combined with a literary flair can bring readers face to face with distant, different lives, enlarging a sense of human responsibility. Highlighting this balance of the empirical and the literary, Narayan calls on Chekhov to bring new energy to the writing of ethnography and creative nonfiction alike. Weaving together selections from writing by and about him with examples from other talented ethnographers and memoirists, she offers practical exercises and advice on topics such as story, theory, place, person, voice, and self. A new and lively exploration of ethnography, Alive in the Writing shows how the genre's attentive, sustained connection with the lives of others can become a powerful tool for any writer.

Contents:

Story and theory. Taking stock: parts and wholes ; Looking back: the power of first impressions ; Scenes, summaries, events ; Situation, story, theory ; Chekhov as ethnographic muse

Place. The place 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

Person. Types and individuals ; The embodied person ; Lives told by things ; Inner biography ; Nonhuman persons ; Imagining across time

Voice. 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

Self. Narrating ; Explaining ; Evoking ; Transforming ; Reframing ; Connecting ; Postscript writing to be alive

Using this book

Further inspiration: helpful books on writing.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613530165

9781280126307

1280126302

9780226567921

0226567923

OCLC:

779173682