ABSTRACT
Ethnographic representation is a unique literary style. For all but the most conservative and positivist ethnographers, the "writing up" of fieldwork has as of late taken on new dimensions, scopes, and challenges. Chief amongst these new concerns is how to deal with enlivening representation. The chapter attempts a composing fieldwork as an artistic endeavor that is not overly preoccupied with mimesis—an endeavor that is open to the potential of creation, animation, and regeneration. Non-representationalists find inspiration in the generative, poietic, expressive power of the arts and humanities and endeavor to emulate their creative potential. A common way to achieve a sense of partiality in non-representational writing is by employing the conditional mood—one of many manifestations of the irrealis mood. Non-representational theory and research neither follow axiomatic theoretical laws, nor attempt to exercise control over its research subjects or over reasoning by way of deductive models.
