Ethnographic Poetry and Social Research: Problematizing the Poetics/Poethics of Empathy in Transnational Cross-Cultural Collaborations

Abstract

Ethnographic poetry as a form of creative nonfiction has much to offer applied social research in general and geohumanities and sociocultural geography in particular as a refined, nuanced, and useful critical-creative communicative form of scholarship and research method. Two transnational cross-cultural collaborative research projects are used as cases to illustrate the potentials of the use of the creative arts, particularly (auto)ethnographic poetry, in disciplinal cross-fertilization, community engagement, and the researchers’ own identity integration as a reflexive practitioner. Although recognizing their importance, the article also problematizes the concept of empathy and the use of (auto)ethnographic poetry in articulating the doubts, dissonance, displacements, and disjuncture produced from inter- and intracultural differences generated from (dis)embodied and (dis)emplaced (dis)locations emerging out of the applied research experience of transnational émigré and migrant practitioners who identify with decolonization projects and (post)colonial subjects.

民族志诗文是一种创意的非小说形式，其作为一种精确、微妙且有效的批判创意性之学术沟通方式与研究方法，对于一般的应用社会研究与地理人文学科，特别是社会文化地理学而言，具有诸多贡献。本研究运用两个跨国、跨文化合作研究计画之案例，描绘运用该创意艺术——特别是（自我）民族志诗文——在学科间的跨领域孕育、社区参与，以及研究者作为具反身性的实践者的自身身份认同整合之潜能。本文虽承认其重要性，但仍问题化移情的概念以及（自我）民族志在阐述跨文化与文化内部差异所生产的怀疑、不一致、位移以及断裂中的使用；而这些差异源自于对认同去殖民计画和（后）殖民主体的跨国移居者与移民实践者进行应用研究的经验中浮现的（去）身体化与（去）地方化的（去）在地性。

Como forma de no ficción creativa, la poesía etnográfica tiene mucho por ofrecer a la investigación social aplicada en general, y a las geohumanidades y a la geografía sociocultural en particular, a manera de forma de comunicación erudita y método de investigación crítico-creativa refinada, matizada y útil. Se usaron dos proyectos transnacionales de investigación colaborativa intercultural como casos con los cuales ilustrar los potenciales del uso de las artes creativas, en particular la poesía (auto)etnográfica, en compromiso comunitario de fertilización disciplinar cruzada, lo mismo que la propia integración de identidad de la investigadora a título de practicante reflexiva. Aunque reconociendo su importancia, el artículo también problematiza el concepto de empatía y el uso de la poesía (auto)etnográfica para articular las dudas, disonancia, desplazamientos y descoyuntamiento derivados de las diferencias interculturales e intraculturales, generadas a partir de las (des)localizaciones (des)personalizadas y (des)emplazadas que surgen de la experiencia de la investigación aplicada de practicantes exiliados transnacionales y migrantes que se identifican con proyectos de descolonización y como sujetos (pos)coloniales.

• (auto)ethnography
• Canada
• empathy
• indigeneity
• Philippines
• poethics
• river

• （自我）民族志
• 加拿大
• 移情
• 本土性
• 菲律宾
• 诗伦理学
• 河流

• (auto)etnografía
• Canadá
• empatía
• indigenismo
• Filipinas
• poesía
• río

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank Deborah Dixon, Jennifer Cassidento, Sarah de Leeuw, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments; Sneja Gunew for bringing fictocriticism to my attention; Gerry Pratt and other University of British Columbia (UBC) colleagues who read my poems; Migrante of BC friends; and fellow Angat Project and RRR Network travelers

FUNDING

This work was supported by the UBC Faculty of Arts Social Justice@UBC Network and SSHRC of Canada, Partnership Development Grant 890–2011–0100.

Notes

1. Jose Rizal’s original poem in Spanish, “The Song of the Wanderer,” was translated by Arthur Ferguson (Craig 1909).

2. The last line in the Canadian national anthem, “O Canada.”

3. “Ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo” (to die because of you) is the last line in the Philippine national anthem, “Lupang Hinirang” (Beloved Land).

4. I wrote Post-Colonial P(o)ets shortly after another example of this subtlety came up when one candidate we were interviewing for a faculty position mentioned during her job talk, citing an academic article I could not track down, that labor-intensive required research methods courses in colleges and universities are often taught by women and people of color. Although I am delighted to regularly teach research methods courses for my two units at UBC, this to-be-verified fact adds to the subtleties in racial dynamics in higher education.

5. This focus connects to UBC’s mandate on global citizenship and socially relevant interdisciplinary research, and specifically to the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice’s mission and mandate to examine intersectional analyses connected to social justice.

6. This is the final line in my poem, “Where Poems Hide.”

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UBC Faculty of Arts Social Justice@UBC Network and SSHRC of Canada, Partnership Development Grant 890–2011–0100.

Notes on contributors

Leonora C. Angeles

LEONORA C. ANGELES is Associate Professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning and Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]. Her continuing research interests are in international and community development issues related to transnationalism and social justice.