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Ethnofiction

Subfield of ethnography From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Ethnofiction is 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 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. It is a film type in which, by means of fictional narrative or creative imagination, often improvised, the portrayed characters (natives) play their own roles as members of an ethnic or social group.

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History

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Ethnologist Jean Rouch is considered to be the father of ethnofiction,[4] with Robert Flaherty as an ancestor.[5] Rouch discovered that a filmmaker interferes with the event he registers: the behavior of the portrayed individuals, the natives, will be affected by the camera's presence. Contrary to the principles of Marcel Griaule,[6][7][8][9] his mentor, Rouch considers it impossible for a non-participating camera to record "pure" events in ethnographic research.[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] Rouch thus introduced the actor as a tool in research.[17][18][19][20]

Ethnofiction has also been developed in Portuguese cinema. Ethnic films have been common in Portugal since the 1930s, particularly from the 1960s to the 1980s[21] and in the early 21st century. The remote Trás-os-Montes region in Portugal and the former Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde islands are common subjects of such films. These films depict local realities along with legends and surreal imagery, producing works of ethnofiction.[citation needed]

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Chronology

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