Adriana Kapała

Centre of Community Archives, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

Oral Histories as Egodocuments?
Reflections on Biographical Method in Oral History

Oral history is a method of conducting interviews about the past (and not only the past). The interviews are conducted by various entities (in Poland). Until now, however, interviews have not been analyzed from an ego-documentary perspective. I would like to look at the status of recordings – in research on the 20th century, research on emotions, and the use of the biographical method as a way of telling a full story about the lives of individuals.

In my paper, I would like to consider a few questions: how do various initiatives acquire their oral history? How can these stories make an impact on a local (or other) community? Where is the role of professional historians in this kind of testimonies?