Bridging Anthropology and Literature through Indian Writing in English

In his 2003 article, “A Strange Romance: Anthropology and Literature” Clifford Geertz discusses the relationship between these two disciplines. Geertz understands that anthropology cannot be solely based on a cold scientific analysis of people and customs as it is almost impossible to perform cultural interpretation absent of subjectivity. The anthropologist’s interpretation adds a touch of creativity to ethnography, bringing it closer to fictional narratives. He also points out the risk of anthropologists losing credibility and objectivity by allowing themselves this subjectivity. The anthropologist uses his/her perspective and interpretation to construct a narrative. As every custom, ritual or tradition is charged with metaphor, symbolism, plot and other stylistic features of literature, it becomes subject to many possible readings and meanings through which other narratives are recreated. For the purpose of this paper I am fundamentally concerned with exploring the “romance” between anthropology and literature from a theoretical perspective. In my thesis I will be further extending this theoretical reading in a more thorough analysis of the novels of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai as examples of narratives that bridge these two disciplines.