In An Antique Land & Dramas of Nationhood   Term Paper ID:42869 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: This paper provides a comparison of the narratives of two ethnographies Amitav Ghosh s ...... More...

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Paper Abstract: This paper provides a comparison of the narratives of two ethnographies, Amitav Ghosh’s In An Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler’s Tale and Lila Abu-Lughod’s Dreams of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt. The analysis compares Ghosh’s novelistic approach to narrative with Abu-Lughod’s more clinical and conventional ethnography. Paper Introduction: In an Antique Land Dramas of Nationhood In Amitav Ghosh\'s In an Antique Land History in the Guise of aTraveler\'s Tale and Lila Abu-Lughod\'s Dreams of Nationhood The Politics ofTelevision in Egypt the authors take a different approach to illustratingtheir respective communities Ghosh\'s book is a combination history mystery travelogue and anthropology that reads as much like a novel as itdoes ethnography Ghosh uses a number of fictional devices in constructinghis story of the relationship of a medieval Indian slave Bomma and Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. He uses memory, recollection, recreation,dialogue exchanges, and other devices to move quickly from one form ofstorytelling to another and then back again. Chicago, IL: Univ. As Bomma states early in the novel(19), "The next year...I was in a village...a couple hours to the southeastof Alexandria. Television upholds these linked values of education and development notjust obliquely through dramas...but directly." Clearly, Abu-Lughod'saccount is filled with professional jargon and reads more like a researchpresentation than Ghosh's often-poetic prose that relies on many elementsof fiction to illustrate his points. Abu-Lughod'swork is filled with probing questions, statistics, and data. Works CitedAbu-Lughod, Lila. Yet even when he isusing these techniques, we see that Ghosh's (241) prose is as poetic asmost good novels, "It was probably inarticulate counter-beliefs, ratherthan formal conversion...that eventually became a small patch of levelground between them: the matrilineally-descended Tulu and the patriarchalJew who would otherwise seem to stand on different sides of an unbridgeablechasm." Ghosh's narrative is filled with the use of metaphors like this aswell as lofty and poetic language, compared to the technical and clinicaljargon used by Abu-Lughod in Dramas of Nationhood. In many instances, whether he isdescribing the travels of Bomma acting as the "merchant agent" for Abrahamor the practice and inquiries of Egyptian villagers, Ghosh's narrativetakes on a poetic quality in the prose that is more novelistic thanclinical ethnography. One of the reasons Ghosh's work takes on the feel of a novel to sucha degree is because part of it is a mystery story in which the authorattempts to recreate not only the relationship between Bomma and Abrahamand his family but also the culture of the region more than 8 years ago.This lends the narrative a somewhat mystical tone as the author greatlyanticipates exploring a former people and time that he must somehow piecetogether like a fiction writer creates a place that never existed. Her workoften discusses theoretical frameworks as a means of illustrating herpoints based on her fieldwork or observations of two classes of Egyptianwomen. When Ghosh (13) becomes uncomfortable with themyriad questions thrown at him about Indian customs and practices Egyptiansview with disdain, his writing takes on all the suspense and description ofa novel, My limbs seemed to have passed beyond my volition as I rose from the divan, knocking over my shusha. In an Antique Land also takes on a novelistic form because of thenature of Ghosh's storytelling. It is in this way that Ghosh's work takes on the ethnographic oranthropological approach delivered by Abu-Lughod. The narrative creates a fictional medievalera in the region, based on Ghosh's painstaking and jigsaw puzzle-likerecreation of the lives of a Hindu slave, Bomma, and his master, AbrahamBen Yiju. For instance, when Abu-Lughod (112)discusses her goal for one chapter we see how much more clinical andtechnical her analysis is than the literary-like brushstrokes and proseused by Ghosh to craft his narrative, "In this chapter, I consider itsqualities as melodrama and its possible effects, following RaymondWilliams, in melodramatizing consciousness. We see this in his distinctionof the "matrilineally-descended" Bomma and the "patriarchal" Abraham (Ghosh263). New York: Vintage, 1994. Her approach is moreconsistent and less varied than the multi-faceted nature of Ghosh'snarrative. Aconclusion will address which author's style of ethnography seems to bemore effective in illustrating a portrait of different cultures and theirbeliefs, values, and practices. In some instances the potential for harmony in discourse amongdiverse cultures comes through as vividly as it does because of Ghosh's useof prose in description. Ghosh uses a number of fictional devices in constructinghis story of the relationship of a medieval Indian slave (Bomma) and hisJewish master (Abraham Ben Yiju) in medieval times, which contrast with theportrayal of modern life in two communities of Egyptian rural farmers foundin Abu-Lughod's book. We learn much aboutBomma and Abraham from Ghosh's fictional efforts to fill in the gaps oftheir lives and culture that records do not provide. However, in contrast to Ghosh's novel-like presentation, Abu-Lughod's (72) narrative is much more clinical as in her followingdescription of the link between education and television: "In part, thisabsence of a critical discourse based on the knowledge of the gap betweenstate rhetoric and everyday experience can surely be related to television. Throughout her accountof the link between national identity and television in Egyptian society,Abu-Lughod maintains a professional tone and construction in her narrative. Forexample, Ghosh travels to Mangalore on the Malabar Coast, where Bomma andAbraham had to relocate due to political and social unrest. Ghosh's book is a combination history,mystery, travelogue, and anthropology that reads as much like a novel as itdoes ethnography. Lila Abu-Lughod provides a more conventional ethnography in heraccount of two communities of Egyptian women, maids of wealthy Cairoemployers and village women in Upper (south) Egypt. Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt. He foreshadows variouscharacters by providing us with details of them before we meet them orfills us in with more details after meeting them. I was almost there, when I heard footsteps close behind me. I pushed my way out, and before anyone could react, I was past the crowd, walking quickly back to my room. In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale. We see that Abu-Lughod'smore conventional ethnography also paints a vivid portrait of the twocommunities of women she observes, but her more objective and aloofapproach to the telling of the stories among them seem less engaging ifsomewhat more professionally told from a clinician's perspective thanGhosh's. In contrast to Ghosh's novelistic-like presentation in In an AntiqueLand, in Dramas of Nationhood, Lila Abu-Lughod adopts a more clinical andaloof perspective in weaving her narrative of how television helps informand shape national issues and identity in Egyptian society. Because of his fascination with therelationship between Bomma and Abraham and because of his close, intimaterelationships with Egyptian villagers, Ghosh's story reveals a novelisticrather than clinical ethnography. of Chicago Press, 2 4.Ghosh, Amitav. As Ghosh (228)tells us when he is waiting for the professor who will unlock the secretsof Mangalore, "It was as though the identity of an elusive and mysteriousacquaintance were soon to be revealed." Mystery, history, ethnography, andtravelogue; Ghosh's work is also complex and multi-faceted like a novel. We see this repeatedly in the book. As the author writes of his youthful memories ofeating with the refugees, "We would all eat together, sitting around thegarden as though it were a picnic, and afterwards we, the children, wouldplay football and hide-and-seek" (Ghosh 2 6). In an Antique Land & Dramas of Nationhood In Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of aTraveler's Tale and Lila Abu-Lughod's Dreams of Nationhood: The Politics ofTelevision in Egypt, the authors take a different approach to illustratingtheir respective communities. We see in the above passage that even though Ghosh uses poetic proseand the elements of fiction to tell his story, he still makes these devicesand this approach relate to anthropology. We see Ghosh's quest to know Bommaencompasses elements of fiction such as being privy to the thoughts ofothers and even metaphysical conceits. Other than the creation of this world, Ghosh also provides anaccount of his own travels and life during the years he lived among twoEgyptian farming communities. This approach alsopermits him to bring to life with vivid brushstrokes the diverseindividuals among the Egyptian farmers, from greedy landlords to thwartedstudents. This analysis will discuss Ghosh's novel-like approach toethnography, comparing it to Abu-Lughod's more clinical offering. By using a number ofliterary techniques associated with fiction, from fragmentation of time toshifts in type of storytelling, Ghosh provides an intimate and engagingaccount of the medieval period in Indian and Islamic history through hisfocus on the relationship between Bomma and Abraham. I know nothing then about the slave except he had given mea right to be there, a sense of entitlement." Ghosh switches locales, shifts time, and uses recollection andmemory to help weave his narrative. Melodrama has been the subjectof a great deal of literary and media theory." It is readily apparent that, in contrast to Lila Abu-Lughod's moreconventional and clinical ethnography in Dramas of Nationhood, Amitav Ghoshoffers a unique approach that combines history, travelogue, andanthropology in a way that reads more like a novel. The nature of Ghosh's In an Antique Land is a combination ofdifferent types of stories that uses a variety of fictional elements toweave the author's narrative. 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