Ethnofiction refers to a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduce art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into peer-reviewed academic works.[1][2][3]
In addition to written texts, the term has also been used in the context of filmmaking, where it refers to ethnographic docufiction, a blend of documentary and fictional film in the area of visual anthropology. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvising, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.
Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction.[4] An ethnologist, he discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers. His camera is never a candid camera.[5] The behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by its presence. Contrary to the principles of Marcel Griaule,[6][7][8][9] his mentor, for Rouch a non-participating camera registering "pure" events in ethnographic research (like filming a ritual without interfering with it) is a preconception denied by practice.[10][11][12][13][14]
An ethnographer cameraman, in this view, will be accepted as a natural partner by the actors who play their roles. The cameraman will be one of them, and may even be possessed by the rhythm of dancers during a ritual celebration and induced in a state of cine-trance.[15][16] Going further than his predecessors, Jean Rouch introduces the actor as a tool in research.[17][18][19][20]
A new genre was born.[21] Robert Flaherty, a main reference for Rouch, may be seen as the grandfather of this genre, although he was a pure documentary maker and not an ethnographer.
Being mainly used to refer to ethnographic films as an object of visual anthropology, the term ethnofiction is as well adequate to refer to experimental documentaries preceding and following Rouch's oeuvre and to any fictional creation in human communication, arts or literature, having an ethnographic or social background.
- ^ VanSlyke-Briggs, Kjersti (2009-09-01). "Consider ethnofiction". Ethnography and Education. 4 (3): 335–345. doi:10.1080/17457820903170143. ISSN 1745-7823. S2CID 217531370.
- ^ McNamara, Patricia (2009-06-01). "Feminist Ethnography: Storytelling that Makes a Difference". Qualitative Social Work. 8 (2): 161–177. doi:10.1177/1473325009103373. ISSN 1473-3250. S2CID 145116084.
- ^ Bochner, Arthur P. (2012-01-01). "On first-person narrative scholarship: Autoethnography as acts of meaning". Narrative Inquiry. 22 (1): 155–164. doi:10.1075/ni.22.1.10boc. ISSN 1387-6740.
- ^ Glossary at MAITRES_FOUS.NET
- ^ Types of Cameras – definition at UCLA
- ^ Marcel Griaule (1898–1956) Archived 2012-04-02 at the Wayback Machine – Article by Sybil Amber
- ^ From Pictorializing to Visual Anthropology1 Archived 2015-06-26 at the Wayback Machine – Chapter from "Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology"
- ^ Nannicelli, Ted (July 2006). "From Representation to Evocation: Tracing a Progression in Jean Rouch's Les magiciens de Wanzerbé, Les maîtres fous, and Jaguar". Visual Anthropology. 19 (2): 123–143. doi:10.1080/08949460600596558. S2CID 144385606.
- ^ Ciarcia, Gaetano (2002). "L'ethnofiction à l'œuvre. Prisme et images de l'entité dogon" [Ethnofiction at work. Prism and images of the dogon entity]. Ethnologies Comparées (in French) (5): 20 p. http://alor.univ.
- ^ Father of 'cinema verite' dies – BBC news
- ^ BIOGRAPHIES: Jean Rouch – Article by Ben Michaels at Indiana University
- ^ A Tribute to Jean Rouch by Paul Stoller at Rouge
- ^ Ethnographic Film (origines)
- ^ Knowing Images: Jean Rouch's Ethnography <- Chapter from Sarah Cooper's monograph "Selfless Cinema?: Ethics and French Documentary" (Oxford: Legenda, 2006) at MAITRES-FOUS.net
- ^ "Cine-trance". Archived from the original on 2012-01-03. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
- ^ Cine-trance: a Tribute to Jean Rouch(Visual Anthropology, American Anthropologist)
- ^ Ethnofiction and the Work of Jean Rouch, article by Reuben Ross, UK Visual Anthropology, November 9, 2010
- ^ Videos about ethnofiction on Vimeo
- ^ Coates, Jennifer (2 February 2019). "Blurred Boundaries: Ethnofiction and Its Impact on Postwar Japanese Cinema". Arts. 8 (1): 20. doi:10.3390/arts8010020.
- ^ Coming of Age as Other: Indigenous People in the Ethnofiction Film 'The Dead and The Others' – article at CINEA, 14 december 2018
- ^ Quist, Brian (2001). Jean Rouch and the genesis of ethnofiction (Thesis). Long Island University. OCLC 778067104.