The aim of the workshop is to consider the ways in which the self (and specifically here the female self) is constructed and expressed in oral testimony. Oral history offers the opportunity for the narrator to present a version of the self in the form of a remembering of and reflection on the past through the mediation of the present. Oral historians have reflected extensively on the practice of conducting feminist oral histories and have elaborated a number of theoretical approaches to analysis of the resulting text. and theory of There are a number of issues we might consider.
What are the strategies employed by individuals to present a coherent self? How are conflicts within the life story resolved? To what extent is the life story a window onto consciousness or merely a representation of a pre-existing or ready-made self? [How] has feminist oral history practice facilitated women’s narrative selves? How do oral narratives of the self differ from written versions in respect of form and content?
The workshop will also offer the opportunity for participants to discuss their own practice in the field.