830 Literaturen germanischer Sprachen; Deutsche Literatur
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This paper, written by an anthropologist, describes his fieldwork experience in the Afro-Brazilian temple Casa das Minas, São Luis do Maranhão, in 1981-1982, done with the German writer Hubert Fichte. Although correcting some statements in Fichte's book on the same subject and criticizing his indiscretion towards several of his informants, the article emphasizes the learning process with the German "ethnopoet": his skillful interview technique, the priority given to subjects of general interest, the importance of card files, the sought for beauty in the statements… As to the methodological differences between ethnography and ethnopoetry, the latter is free from the conventions of anthropological work, being able to concentrate on the beauty of the text and to conceive ethnography as a literary form. On the other hand, the advantages of ethnography, especially in Malinowski's tradition, are in the commitment with true facts and the precision of details. – See also, in this number of Pandaemonium Germanicum, Willi Bolle's complementary article on "Ethnopoetry and Ethnography".
In this Paper, the idea of "ethnopoetics" is seen not exclusively as the characteristic trait of Hubert Fichte's (1935-1986) work, but as one among several forms of New Ethnology, which appeared in the context of the crisis of traditional ethnology in the 20th century. The first part intends to conceptually clarify several issues introduced by Fichte, such as the transformation of the world into words, the connection between fieldwork and interpretation, the "participant observation", and the encounter between hegemonic and peripheral cultures, comparing them with the ethnographical essays of Lévi-Strauss, Malinowski, Evans-Pritchard and Ruth Benedict. The second part is devoted to Fichte's posthumous book "Explosion", published in 1993 – where he relates his experience of three journeys in Brazil, between 1969 and 1982, a text which may be considered as his working journal and guide to all his publications on Brazil. I discuss how far the author realized his proposals to write a "novel of ethnology" and to create a "new ethnology".
This paper is meant to be an introduction to the works of Hubert Fichte. It presents some passages from his texts that help to understand his ethnopoetics.