Alive in the Writing Kirin Narayan Alive i n t h e Writing crafting ethnography in the company of chekhov The University of Chicago Press chicago and london kirin narayan is the author of Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels, Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon, the novel Love, Stars, and All That, and the memoir My Family and Other Saints, also published by the University of Chicago Press. A former Guggenheim fellow, she is professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2012 by Kirin Narayan All rights reserved. Published 2012. Printed in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56818-8 (cloth) isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56819-5 (paper) isbn- 10: 0-226-56818-0 (cloth) isbn- 10: 0-226-56819-9 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Narayan, Kirin. Alive in the writing : crafting ethnography in the company of Chekhov / Kirin Narayan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56818-8 (alk. paper) isbn- 10: 0-226-56818-0 (alk. paper) isbn- 13: 978-0-226-56819-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn- 10: 0-226-56819-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ethnology—Authorship. 2. Creative nonfi ction— Authorship. 3. Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich, 1860– 1904—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Ethnology in literature. I. Title. gn307.7.n37 2012 305.8—dc23 2011023619 o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). In memory of two grandmothers— Alice Marie Fish Kinzinger who taught me how to read, to write and to fi nd pleasure in crafting words and Kamlabai Ramji who never read, never wrote, and who confi dently fl ung words into the bright colors of stories Of Chekhov Tolstoi said: “He is a strange writer: he throws words about as if at random, and yet every- thing is alive. And what understanding! He never has any superfl uous details; every one of them is either necessary or beautiful.” A. B. Goldenveizer, Talks with Tolstoi Contents Preface: Alive in the Writing ix 1: story and theory 1 Taking Stock * First Impressions * Scenes, Summaries, Events * Situation, Story, Theory * Chekhov as Ethnographic Muse 2: place 23 The Scene 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 3: person 45 Types and Individuals * The Embodied Person * Lives Told by Things * Inner Biography * Nonhuman Persons * Imagining across Time 4: voice 67 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 5: self 93 Narrating * Explaining * Evoking * Transforming * Reframing * Connecting Postscript: Writing to Be Alive 111 Acknowledgments 123 Notes 125 Readings and References 135 Index 145 Alive in the Writing preface When words gather together with energy, other places, other people, and other voices stir in a parallel life. The writer can feel more alive too, alert and connected to a welling inner source that fl ows outward toward other lives. This at least is the ideal. But words sometimes re- fuse to be summoned, leaving a writer sluggish and adrift, or worse, alone and depressed. To fi nd inspiration, purpose, and nurturing company, a writer might look around for a writing group, a workshop, a class, or even a book like this: a book about writing. I found the seeds for this book at the crossroads of ethnographic writing and creative nonfi ction. As a cultural anthropologist and folklorist, I have for years been reading, writing, and teaching ethnog- raphies—accounts that closely document and try to gain insight into people’s lives as they unfold in particular situations and corners of the world. Since I was interested in writing itself, I also began teach- ing classes and workshops about writing ethnography. Ethnography