Georges Perec's experiments in social description

Abstract

This article dissects some key works, published in the 1960s and 1970s, by French writer Georges Perec to argue that they can be understood, in different ways, as forms of ethnographic writing utilizing approaches, methods and stylistic devices which remain highly pertinent to ethnographic practices today. The devices in Perec's repertoire include minutely detailed descriptions, lists, the use of imperfect and conditional tenses, significant but mundane exemplars. In acute form, Perec demonstrates the necessary tensions between the presentation of detail, the role of generalization and the need for explanation in our `tellings about society'.