The Affinity between Anthropology and Literature: Reflections on the Poetics of Ethnography in the writings of Nikos Kavvadias

In this essay, I reflect on the poetics of ethnography by looking at the travelling writings of the Greek poet Nikos Kavvadias (1919-1975) in reference to the field-diary of the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942). My aim is to investigate the relationship of anthropology to prose. Paraphrasing Kavvadias’ question in his poem Kuro Siwo (1933) “Is it the compass turning, Or the Ship?” this paper asks: is it the method that makes anthropology, or is it in fact the introverted experience of travelling?