Fictional Methods in Ethnography: Believability,Specks of Glass,and Chekhov

Abstract

With recent calls for new, often radical and experimental ways of "doing" ethnographic writing (e.g., Denzin, Ellis & Bochner, Harrington, Richardson), the responsibility of ethnographers to write convincingly comes to the fore. In this article, the author explores the use, worldview, and evaluation of writing that stems from a humanistic tradition for the human disciplines. The author delineates some strands of ethnography—the use of fictional methods, the use of fiction that has been factualized, and the use of fictional ethnography. He examines why fiction and fictional devices may in fact be more effective in conveying certain aspects of lived experience, especially to academics, than so-called scienttfic language, and explores, throughout the article, selected macro- and microtech niques that may make fictional ethnography more engaging, palatable, and effective as but one form of the ethnographic strand.