Muse painting by Ib Beno. Source
Classic ethnographic accounts are usually long. Built upon the idea of flash fiction, Stone and McGranahan (2020) describe flash Ethnography as a form of narrative that is intended to be brief and intense, stripped of excess. The genre has a condensed and stark storytelling potential as they are compressed and rich in vivid imagery and affect. The genre also offers the opportunity to transform ethnographic material through innovative forms. Stone and McGranahan (2020) state that each flash essay is a self-contained whole rather than an excerpt from a larger work. The essays begin in medias res, avoiding lengthy exposition, and invite readers to peel back layers with each sentence. Like traditional ethnography, flash ethnography remains accountable to the real and explores the complexities of being-in-the-world and understanding other worlds. The genre however benefits from the power of brevity and conciseness. They suit things, events, and expressions that risk losing their force under the strain of belaboured explanations or analysis—that which is irretrievably stilled and reduced when theorized. Their immediacy makes them particularly well-suited to evocative, abject, or affective instances. Flash ethnographies give partial form to the unspeakable, the “stories”, as Rubaii writes, that one “never know[s] what to do with” (2020), that which defies analysis and adequate representation yet raises important grievances that demand being addressed. They demanding presence from their readers and expression in direct and candid forms, possessing an effect beyond the content they convey.
Essays that appear in the collection Stone and McGranahan edited are approximately 800 words long, a condensed form that presents its own miniature world while also gesturing outward to broader contexts. You can check them out here.
Work Cited
- Stone, Nomi and Carole McGranahan. 2020. “Flash Ethnography: An Introduction.” In “Flash Ethnography,” Carole McGranahan and Nomi Stone (eds.). American Ethnologist website, 26 October 2020. https://americanethnologist.org/features/collections/flash-ethnography/flash-ethnography-an-introduction
- Rubaii, Kali. 2020. “Frozen Baby Story.” In “Flash Ethnography,” Carole McGranahan and Nomi Stone, editors, American Ethnologist website, 26 October 2020, [https://americanethnologist.org/features/collections/flash-ethnography/frozen-baby-story]