While an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, I took a class similar to our sport and society class. It had a powerful effect on me and is one of the reasons that I am pursuing a master's degree in the field. The "Introduction: Imagining Sociological Narratives" by Denison and Reinhart (2000) led me to realize that there is one particular reason that the class connected with me. It is because it focused on social narratives, teaching me about history through others experience thereby helping me to relate on a personal level.
The authors' description of their college professor Norman Denzin and his class made me feel as if I was right there with them. In fact, it made me want to attend college all over again. It was then that I remembered that I am already in college! I was so engrossed in the story that I lost personal reference. To me, this is the power of ethnography. It is a way to reach many people while at the same time helping them to learn facts about a time, person, group, or period of history. The authors have the goal of making evocative texts and "fictional and other types of storied representations an accepted form of scholarship" (p. 2). I applaud this goal and see the value of these types of work.
However, it is a difficult field, as Denison and Reinhart state, "We found that many authors of fiction did not, in fact, hold to the standard ideas of rights for manuscripts as determined by academics" (p. 4). I would be interested to find out what the "standard ideas of rights" are and how they can be properly applied.
What was the class that you took at Illinois? Do you remember who the professor was? I love the introduction by Denison and Rinehart, in part because they are both good writers, but also because it takes me back to that time. That is what it means to be "evocative."
ReplyDelete