What Lies Below: Exploring Constructions of Collective Memory in Archival Collections

Abstract

This article interrogates relationships within and between oral history narratives and how such constructions affect the reading/analysis of both individual and collective oral histories. Within this field, a number of issues need to be considered. Some of the most prominent include the process of recording a life story; the play between archiving a dynamic narrative within an archival system of categorisation and how a particular narrative affects the reading of other narratives within that collection. It is also of particular interest to explore how such layering remains dynamic, fuses or separates as time goes by and collections grow.

Keywords:

• oral history
• audio-visual archive
• archival collections
• collective memory
• interviewing
• archival research
• archival management