De Capitani Lucio. Ethnographic Narratives as World Literature: Uneven Entanglements in European and South Asian Writing

Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. — 288 p.- Brings anthropology and ethnography into dialogue with world-literary studies
- Situates writings from around the world within an ethnographic fieldwork
- Shows how imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and ecology are interdependentThis book links world-literary studies with anthropology and ethnography. It shows how ethnographic narratives can represent a compelling point of departure for world-literary explorations. The volume compares the travel writing and fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling as colonial ethnographic narratives; the militant writings of Carlo Levi and Mahasweta Devi; and the travelogues and ethnographic fiction of Amitav Ghosh and the literary journalism of Frank Westerman. Each of these readings focuses on a set of social, political and historical circumstances and relies on a dialogue with anthropological theory and history. This book demonstrates how imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and ecology are interdependent, and contributes to methodological debates within both anthropology and world-literary studies.Lucio De Capitani is Research Fellow in the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy.