Experiencing future through the records of Past
Oral history can be described as a dialogic discourse seeking for a connection between biography and history, between the individual experience and transformation of the society and the others. But to what extent a history can be personified or a personal life can be historic is still uncertain. Alessandro Portelli in his article Oral History as Genre argues that “oral history expresses the awareness of the historicity of personal experience and of the individual’s role in the history of society and in public events: wars, revolutions, strikes, floods, etc”. It does not mean that oral history is something untold or never been brought into focus rather they are the stories narrated several times before, but in fragments. People use to narrate their lived experiences to their children or their friends whenever they feel like sharing but those stories are neither told with a purpose of accounting nor are they organised based on the events followed. But when these experiences are shared before a historian, it legitimises the interviewer with a sense of authority and he becomes more self-aware than before.
Defining the difference between a biography and an oral history, he argues that “oral history shifts between performance-oriented narrative and content-oriented document, between subject-oriented life story and theme-oriented testimony. Auto-biograpghy or a biography emphasises on the personality and its position or importance in the society. They are focused on maintaining the image of a public figure. But in an oral history, the interviewee generally reaches to the bottom of the society and tried to focus on a theme rather than the personality. And this is the reason, these interviewees starts with the responses like “I don’t know much about it” or “I have noting significant to tell”. Sometimes, they may also give reference to some other people who they feel more intellectual or can contribute better in writing history. But as the interviewer proceed with him, he develops a sense of authority and starts sharing his experiences in a more structured way.
The Silly Season 