“…In developing this approach, I draw on Maurice Merleau‐Ponty's philosophy of the indeterminate and on Tim Ingold's framing of anthropology as a discipline that is equivalent to art in the sense that the insights we produce always rely on sensual and imaginative participation in the worlds of others, thereby exceeding the bounds of objectivity (Ingold 2018; 2019; see also Throop 2012). In turning to literary displacement, I am inspired also by the love of literature that characterizes everyday lives in northern Vietnam, where people read, write, and recite poetry, folk songs, and novels on a daily basis, weaving literary interpretations of human existence into understandings of their own lives (for ethnographic examples in the context of type II diabetes, see Gammeltoft 2021). Literary displacement is, in this sense, an integral part of everyday lives in northern Vietnam and has been so, it seems, for centuries.…”