Oral History and Public Memories

by Hamilton, Paula

• ISBN13: 9781592131402
• ISBN10: 1592131409
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-28
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

Oral History and Public Memoriesis the first book to explore the relationship between the well-established practice of oral history and the burgeoning field of memory studies. In the past, oral historians have generally privileged the individual narrator, frequently fetishizing the interview process without fully understanding that interviews are only one form of memory-making. Historians engaged in memory studies, on the other hand, have asked broader questions-about the social and cultural processes at work in remembrance. What distinguishes these essays from much work in oral history is their focus not on the experiences of individual narrators, but on the broader cultural meanings of oral history narratives. What distinguishes them from other work in memory studies is their grounding in real events. Taken together, these contributions explain the processes by which oral histories move beyond interviews with individual people to become articulated memories shared by others.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Building Partnerships between Oral History and Memory Studies	p. vii
Introduction: Creating Heritage	p. 3
Parks Canada, the Commemoration of Canada, and Northern Aboriginal Oral History	p. 7
History from Above: The Use of Oral History in Shaping Collective Memory in Singapore	p. 31
Mapping Memories: Oral History for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in New South Wales, Australia	p. 47
Moving beyond the Walls: The Oral History of the Ottoman Fortress Villages of Seddulbahir and Kumkale	p. 65
Private Memory in a Public Space: Oral History and Museums	p. 87
Introduction: Recreating Identity and Community	p. 103
Imagining Communities: Memory, Loss, and Resilience in Post-Apartheid Cape Town	p. 107
Contested Places in Public Memory: Reflections on Personal Testimony and Oral History in Japanese American Heritage	p. 125
"Scars in the Ground": Kauri Gum Stories	p. 145
Memory and Mourning: Living Oral History with Queer Latinos and Latinas in San Francisco	p. 165
Interfaced Memory: Black World War II Ex-GIs' and Veterans' Reunions of the Late Twentieth Century	p. 187
Introduction: Making Change	p. 207
Public Memory as Arena of Contested Meanings: A Student Project on Migration	p. 211
Countering Corporate Narratives from the Streets: The Cleveland Homeless Oral History Project	p. 231
Public Memory, Gender, and National Identity in Postwar Kosovo: The Albanian Community	p. 253
Seeing the Past, Visions of the Future: Memory Workshops with Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia	p. 269
Contributors	p. 293
Index	p. 297
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