How to write? Experiences, challenges and possibilities of ethnographic writing

Abstract

Ethnography, as text, is the main outcome of fieldwork. It is also the most important way in which anthropologists communicate and share their findings. As a consequence, despite substantial critique by postmodern anthropology on how ethnographic texts in the past have represented the reality and life-worlds of others, ethnographic writing remains at the centre of the anthropological enterprise. But how to write? The so-called Writing Culture debate, together with feminist and postcolonial approaches, has stimulated new ways to do and write ethnography. But where much has been published on how to master fieldwork, it is still hard to find advice on how to go ‘from notes to narratives’ (Ghodsee 2016) and write a convincing ethnography. This special issue brings together a diverse range of contributions on how to write ethnography. Contributors reflect on ethical challenges, including issues of confidentiality and questions of representation. Writing is discussed as a way to construct and deconstruct truth(s). Temporalities of ethnographic writing are scrutinised and different writing styles, like vignettes and portraits, are introduced. Engagement with other modes of representation and storytelling, like film-making and photography, pushes beyond the written medium. The special issue concludes with two contributions on how to teach and learn ethnographic writing.