KNJIŽEVNI ZAOKRET I ETNOGRAFSKO PISANJE U AMERIČKOJ KULTURNOJ ANTROPOLOGIJI
LITERARY TURN AND ETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING IN AMERICAN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: In 1980s ethnographic writing emerged as a new issue, object of analysis, and motive for critical writings, textual experiments and innovations. Most commonly, it is associated with the so-called literary turn and textually, critically and reflexively oriented approaches within interpretive and postmodern anthropology in the United States of America. Questioning of discursive and rhetoric practices of anthropology as a Western discipline dealing with culture and the "Other" in modern and contemporary world was initiated at that time. This paper will present an overview of key studies in which older forms of ethnographic writing in the tradition of anthropology are discussed, i.e. which advocate and pursue newer forms of writing as epistemologically and ethically more correct. Special attention is given to the critique of Geertz’s writing from the perspective of postmodern ethnography, taking as an example the essay on "deep play".

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