Oral History in a Wounded Country: Interactive Interviewing in South Africa

ISBN 10: 1869141474 / ISBN 13: 9781869141479

Published by University Of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008

About this Item

Shows how the cultural, political, socio-economic and intellectual evolutions that gave birth to South Africa affect the oral history process. This book seeks to help practitioners to reflect critically on their practice and find better ways of handling the interview process. Editor(s): Denis, Philippe; Ntsimane, Radikobo. Num Pages: 208 pages. BIC Classification: 1HFMS; HBTD. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 230 x 150 x 13. Weight in Grams: 272. . 2008. Paperback. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9781869141479

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Oral History in a Wounded Country: Interactive Interviewing in South Africa
• Publisher: University Of KwaZulu-Natal Press
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1869141474
• ISBN 13: 9781869141479
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

With the end of apartheid and the exciting, but elusive, advent of a new nation, South Africa is witness to the emergence of a new generation of oral historians whose aim is to develop a broader, more inclusive, and culturally sensitive understanding of the South African past. In a country still wounded by a legacy of racial discrimination, the retrieving of oral memories is a task more urgent than ever. Oral History in a Wounded Country shows how the cultural, political, socio-economic, and intellectual evolutions - that gave birth to South Africa as we know it today - affect the oral history process. It will help practitioners, whether they use oral history as one technique among others to gain a better knowledge of the past or envisage oral history as an academic discipline in its own right, to reflect critically on their practice and find better ways of handling the interview process. The challenge is to appreciate the complexity of South Africa's diverse histories, while being attentive to the dynamics of the interview and their effect on both interviewers' and interviewees' sense of identity.

About the Author

Philippe Denis is professor of History of Christianity and Radikobo Ntsimane is a researcher in Oral History and Religious History, both at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. They are respectively the director and the deputy-director of the Sinomlando Centre for Oral History and Memory Work in Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.