Introduction: Approaching Oral History at the Centre for Popular Memory

Field, Sean

Introduction: Approaching Oral History at the Centre for Popular Memory

Journal Article

2008

Journal Title

South African Historical Journal

Link to Journal

https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rshj20

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Historical Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

At its dialogic centre, oral history research methodology involves interactions between an interviewer eliciting and listening to a narrator framing and performing their memories through spoken words, sentences and stories. But oral history per se, as this South African Historical Journal collection will demonstrate, is much more than interface between interviewer and interviewee. This is because oral history is constructed through dialogues about memory, ways of ‘writing’ and ‘speaking’ words, diverse forms of dissemination and archiving, and multiple ways of interpreting memories and stories that reveal the nuances of subjectivity, agency and identity formation. South African oral history as a research methodology and practice has moved from its humble beginnings in the 1970s to its resurgence in the post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) period. There are now, probably, far more oral history projects happening outside of universities in a variety of sites such as schools, museums, archives and non-governmental organisations. However, a variety of questions and challenges remain for oral historians, such as the need for appropriate ethical standards for oral history research, dissemination and audiovisual archiving.

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