Blurring the boundaries between literature and anthropology: a British perspective

The discipline of anthropology is commonly associated with social sciences rather than humanities and the interaction between anthropology and literature is rarely highlighted. However, many anthropologists have fruitfully engaged with authors such as Jane Austen and E.M. Foster while authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Thomas Hardy and George Eliot responded to anthropology in their writings. Since these authors, like anthropologists, seek to render realistic portrayals of social life experiences, this essay argues that there is much to gain from re-examining and reducing the disciplinary distance between anthropology and literature.