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Drawing-writing culture: the truth-fiction spectrum of an ethno-graphic novel on the Sri Lankan civil war and migration

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posted on 2023-06-20, 14:17 authored by Benjamin Dix, Raminder KaurRaminder Kaur
With our focus on an “ethno-graphic novel” on the Sri Lankan civil war and the forcible displacement and migration of Tamil survivors, we make two main propositions while reflecting on the “graphic narrative turn” that has emerged in anthropology in recent years. First, we inscribe drawing into the “writing of cultures” where words have held a superior status in ethnographic representations. Rather than seeing drawings as perceptive tools for recording scenes in fieldwork alone, we extend them to a representational practice where they can have a deep, intricate, and equivalent entanglement with words to create synchronous affective intensities among a larger audience. Our second proposal follows Jean Rouch on cinéma vérité to interrogate assumptions about truth and fiction as portrayed by film representations. We propose a theory and practice for graphic novel production that we have termed vérités graphiques (literally, graphic realities). This describes the collaborative and interactive engagement with people's contributions and views, and their distillation and fictionalization through the ethno-graphic form. We diverge from cinéma vérité, however, by highlighting a truth-fiction spectrum that further challenges the presumed objectivity of what is seen, experienced, co-created, and revealed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Visual Anthropology Review

ISSN

1058-7187

Publisher

American Anthropological Association

Issue

1

Volume

35

Page range

76-111

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Contributors

Lindsay Pollock

Legacy Posted Date

2018-10-19

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-05-16

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-10-18

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