An Oral History Project : Rhode Island Waves in the Second World War

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-96
Author(s):  
Evelyn Cherpak
2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 584-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Fox

Despite extensive scholarship on British documentary in the period from 1929 to 1950, the role of female documentary film-makers has received relatively little attention, partly due to their fragmented and partial ‘archival trace’. Combining neglected materials in the BECTU oral history project, the personnel records of the GPO Film Unit, and the personal papers of leading female documentarists, this article challenges the standard narrative of wartime opportunity and postwar decline that tends to characterise the examination of women's employment more broadly in this period. It uses women's experience in documentary film production to offer a more complex explanation of the effect of war within a wider chronological framework and within the context of workflow, labour patterns, training and networks within the industry itself. It examines female documentarists’ own accounts, through oral histories, to suggest that such sources should be ‘read against the light’ to offer insights into the memory of the Second World War, contending that the place of gender in defining individual careers both during and after the conflict remains contested, a site of the continued struggle for professional recognition, achievement and identity.


Author(s):  
Alison Chand

This chapter begins by discussing important theories of masculinity underlying the arguments in the book, before defining the policy of reservation in Second World War Britain and its implications. The geographical boundaries of the study are also defined here, with the areas understood as being incorporated into ‘Glasgow’ and ‘Clydeside’ discussed. The chapter also defines the notions of ‘lived’ and ‘imagined’ subjectivities, which centrally underpin the arguments made in the book, before considering the methodologies used in conducting the research involved, primarily oral history. The chapter moves on to look at uses of oral testimonies in previous historical research before examining the different kinds of oral testimony used for this study, including those held in existing oral history archives and newly conducted oral history interviews. Finally, the chapter examines other primary source materials used in this research, including cultural materials such as newspapers, novels and films.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Damian Gocół

The Image of Kresy Wschodnie in Texts of Oral HistoryThe author assumes that KRESY (former Polish Eastern Borderlands) is a characteristic culturem of Polish culture. He considers culturems as concepts which are important for self-identification, and assumes that identity has a shape of a narrative. Consequently, he recognises that the culturem KRESY may have a significant impact on shaping the identity of people associated with the former lands of the Second Polish Republic, so-called Kresy Wschodnie. This article analyses three oral history texts from the author’s files. They reveal a strong connection between the image of KRESY and the Polish home (especially the manor house) and the roots of Kresowiak identity in national liberation traditions (especially the January Uprising). This image is characterised by a certain degree of idealisation: KRESY are viewed as a place of peaceful coexistence of numerous nations and cultures. The image of KRESY has changed over time. After the Polish-Bolshevik war, it was a place of lawlessness; after the creation of the Border Protection Corps (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza, KOP) it was a place of peace. The Second World War was a turning point marking the end of Polish Kresy. Obraz Kresów Wschodnich w tekstach historii mówionejAutor wychodzi z założenia, że KRESY są kulturemem charakterystycznym dla kultury polskiej, przy czym kulturemy uznaje za pojęcia istotne dla samoidentyfikacji. Zakładając, że tożsamość ma postać narracyjną, uważa, że kulturem KRESY może mieć istotny wpływ na kształtowanie tożsamości ludzi związanych z ziemiami leżącymi na wschodzie II Rzeczpospolitej, czyli Kresami Wschodnimi. Analizie poddaje trzy teksty historii mówionej ze zbiorów własnych. Ujawnia się w nich silny związek obrazu KRESÓW z polskim domem (szczególnie dworem) i zakorzenienie tożsamości Kresowiaków w tradycjach narodowowyzwoleńczych (szczególnie powstania styczniowego). Obraz KRESÓW cechuje pewna idealizacja, przedstawiane są jako miejsce pokojowej koegzystencji licznych narodów i kultur. Obraz KRESÓW ulega zmianie w czasie. Po wojnie polsko-bolszewickiej to miejsce bezprawia, po powstaniu Korpusu Ochrony Pogranicza – pokoju. II wojna światowa stanowi cezurę, od której datuje się koniec polskich Kresów.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
Anna Wylegała

The aim of this text is to present the internal differentiation of Ukrainian social memory. The author concentrates on vernacular memory of three issues that are essential in regard to Ukrainian identity: the Second World War and the conflict between the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Soviet authorities, Holodomor, and the Holocaust. Her analysis is based on her own research conducted in Galicia and Central Ukraine, searches in oral history sources, and also on the published and unpublished results of qualitative research by other researchers and public opinion surveys. Her main conclusions involve the unconsonant nature of different memories with differentiations of regional populations, the unifying nature of memory of the Holodomor, the strongly polarizing memory of the UIA as a potential factor of social conflict, and the problematic nature of memory of the Holocaust.


Author(s):  
Juliette Pattinson ◽  
Arthur McIvor ◽  
Linsey Robb

This book focuses on working class civilian men who as a result of working in reserved occupations were exempt from enlistment in the armed forces. It utilises fifty six newly conducted oral history interviews as well as autobiographies, visual sources and existing archived interviews to explore how they articulated their wartime experiences and how they positioned themselves in relation to the hegemonic discourse of military masculinity. It considers the range of masculine identities circulating amongst civilian male workers during the war and investigates the extent to which reserved workers draw upon these identities when recalling their wartime selves. It argues that the Second World War was capable of challenging civilian masculinities, positioning the civilian man below that of the ‘soldier hero’ while, simultaneously, reinforcing them by bolstering the capacity to provide and to earn high wages, both of which were key markers of masculinity.


Author(s):  
Miroslav Vaněk

This article focuses on the ideas of interviewing on both sides of a conflict, those who prevailed and those who were replaced. It traces the political upheavals that raged Czechoslovakia after the Second World War to understand and analyze interviewing on both sides of a conflict. Czech historians who are investigating our country's contemporary history using oral history methodology have made research into the development of society during the Communist era, including the period of normalization, one of our top priorities. This article also refers to how Czech historians recorded one hundred student revolutionaries. They recorded the narratives of approximately one hundred young people who, as university students during the crucial November days of 1989, had been a driving force in the popular uprisings that swept through Czechoslovakia in the first few days of the revolution. This article winds up by analyzing ways of interviewing ex-communist functionaries.


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