Only Human
A Reflection on the Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Working with “Difficult” Stories
Dados Bibliográficos
| ID | 11077377 |
|---|---|
| Autores | Anna Sheftel (0009-0005-8197-1304, DigitalSpace (United States), autor correspondente), Stacey Zembrzycki |
| Ano | 2010 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Fascículo | 2 |
| Páginas | 191-214 |
| Data de publicação | 2010-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Sim |
| Open Access | Não |
| Tipo | ARTICLE |
| Periódico | The Oral History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Identificadores do periódico | ISSN: 0094-0798 • E-ISSN: 1533-8592 |
| Editora | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ohr/ohq050 |
| OpenAlex | W2150736191 |
| Idioma | EN |
| Citações recebidas | 18 |
| Referências citadas | 20 |
As oral historians, we devote a great deal of time to painstakingly designing our projects, cognizant of the fact that our research requires us to interact with human beings in often intimate ways. For this same reason, though, our careful methodology and meticulously designed projects are constantly being tested. This article is a reflection on some of the ethical and methodological challenges that the authors faced during their life story interviews with Holocaust survivors in Montreal, Canada. In particular, it explores three major themes: the elaborate process of learning to "share authority" and build trust with interviewees; the limitations of "deep listening" and their implications; and the struggle to deal with contentious politics, such as perceived racism, that emerged out of some interviews. Reflection on these methodological and ethical challenges not only opens up a wider and important discussion among researchers about how practice relates to theory but also teaches us about our interviewees. For example, what does an interviewee's refusal to engage deeply about his or her past tell us about how they formed their identity in the aftermath of mass violence? Challenges, such as this one, are part of the story. They shed light on questions of narrative formation, the identity politics that result from survival, and how individual memory interacts with dominant narratives about atrocity. They force us to recognize that both our interviewees—and ourselves—are human beings, and not just collections of stories.
Active listening · Aesthetics · Epistemology · Identity (music) · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Storytelling · The Holocaust · Gender Studies · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
Professionalizing Survival
Annual Bibliography of Works About Life Writing, 2009-2010
Au-delà du syndrome de la ‘‘citation payante’’ »
Taming and Training Greek “Peasant Girls” and the Gendered Politics of Whiteness in Postwar Canada
Curatorial Dissonance and Conflictual Aesthetics
We became British aliens’
The Narrative Turn, Corporate Storytelling, and Oral History
Storytelling as a political act
The ‘Ethnic’ Welfare Worker
The Oral History Interview – A Relationship and Space of Trust
Ferroconcrete cases, sausage migrants, and Santa Barbara
It's Very Little I Know about the Facts of Life to This Day”
The afterlife of interviews
The closer we are, The harder it gets
Introducing human rights education within a memorial museum framework
Dialoguing with Retired Nurses
Healthy Ageing Futures for Older Women Asylum Seekers
Decolonizing the Academy
A shared authority
When they read what we write
Narrating our Pasts
The Presence of the Past
A Shared Inquiry into Shared Inquiry
Reticence in Oral History Interviews
If I See Some of This in Writing, I'm Going to Shoot You
Ethics and Interpersonal Relationships in Oral History Research
Commentary - Sharing Authority
Introduction - Sharing Authority
People and their Pasts
Do I Like Them too Much
Fascism in Popular Memory
Writing History, Writing Trauma
Holocaust Testimony, Ethics, and the Problem of Representation
When Is an Interview an Interview? Notes from Listening to Holocaust Survivors
Telling our stories
Oral Tradition as History
Women's Words
Life Lived Like a Story
| Obras citantes distintas | 18 |
|---|---|
| Citações por ano | 1,13 |
| Intervalo de citações | 2010 - 2026 (17) |
| Velocidade de citação | current |
| Altamente citado | Não |
| Tipos de citação | Neutras: 14 |