Anthropology’s keen interest in fiction can be traced to the discipline’s so-called ‘literary turn’ in the 1980s and 90s, instigated by James Clifford and George Marcus’ groundbreaking anthology Writing Culture (1986). But the close connection between anthropology and literature goes back to pioneer anthropologists like Bronislaw Malinowski and Claude Lévi-Strauss, who were also prominent writers. The discussion continues, and ‘literary anthropology’ is now a well-established sub-field that addresses literary studies as well as creative writing. Yet, anthropology’s courting of literature has largely remained unanswered. Some famous authors have a background in anthropology, such as Kurt Vonnegut, Ursula K. Le Guin and Amitav Ghosh, but few – one of the exceptions being Ghosh – have reflected on the relationship between the two practices, let alone consciously attempted to fuse them. Speculative Anthropology: A Literary History of Contamination explores the ‘intersection’ between
