Performing Self in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Marilena Papachristophorou

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9783031773051
• eBook ISBN: 9783031773068
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Theatre
• Index: Social Sciences

This provocative book presents a methodological proposal for teaching ethnographic fieldwork, applying interdisciplinary tools inspired from performance theory, acting, experiential anthropology and existential psychotherapy. At the same time, it constitutes a theoretical and methodological trajectory mapping the history of ethnographic fieldwork through highly characteristic moments along with the author's own personal journey in the field in terms of a lifetime project. Starting from the assumption that ethnographic fieldwork constitutes a deeply human experience, the book proposes a step further towards the performative dimension of an ethnographic condition inspired by the Stanislavski method, which in practice complements performance theory issues: it is argued that participant observation offers an intermediate identity for the ethnographer through a conscious management of the social "role" dictated by their research participants; this ethnographic mediation of the Self may also have psychotherapeutic effects, mainly through conscious management of self-diversity and reflexivity in ethnographic writing. Ethnographic fieldwork is thus highlighted as a performative stage and a field of deep transformations for the ethnographer's identity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Instead of an Introduction: The Ethnographer, the Listener, the Performer—Three Roles in One Attribute
• 2. Starting with Experiencing: Towards an Intermediate Identity
• 3. Uninvited Guest
• 4. Familiarity in Progress
• 5. Back to Normality, De-familiarisation Anew
• 6. Beyond the Method, the Method, Again
• 7. Sustaining an Open Debate
• 8. Postface: Embodying Knowledge
• Back Matter