Original scientific paper
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REALITY AND FICTION IN ETHNOGRAPHIC AND TRAVEL SOURCES: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HERMENEUTICS OF THE FOREIGN
Ingo Schneider
; Institut für Volkskunde, Innsbruck, Austria
Abstract
The topic of this article is the relationship between reality and fiction but also between
pictures of the self and the other in ethnographic and travel literature. The texts used for
closer analysis are very consciously taken from a wide range of different sources as well
concerning time, space and genre: from Herodotís Historiae to Lukianís Alethes historia,
from Brendan's Voyage to Mandeville's Travels, just to mention the most well known
examples. The combination of ethnologic and folkloristic approach provides at least four
findings: Firstly, pictures of the other are very much alike over time and space. Secondly,
differentiation between true and false can not be our first aim. We have to realize that
reality and fiction are frequently intertwined, even more that there is a fruitful exchange
between both. Thirdly, we have to accept that texts about other cultures or peoples are
cultural constructions and that we folklorists and cultural anthropologists are very often
workers or at least coworkers in these buildings. This leads to the fourth point: Pictures of
the other always play an important role in the creation of identities.
Keywords
reality; fiction; ethnographic and travel sources
Hrčak ID:
33141
URI
Publication date:
2.12.2002.
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