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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:African words, academic choices: re-presenting interviews and oral histories
Author:Reef, AnneISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:History in Africa (ISSN 1558-2744)
Volume:35
Pages:419-438
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:historiography
oral history
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/history_in_africa/v035/35.reef.pdf
Abstract:Academic writing that uses interviews and oral histories as source material necessitates at least two levels of narration: first, representation of the primary material, and, second, the author's analysis, synthesis and commentary on it. Using works by Nwando Achebe, Susan Geiger, Kairn Klieman, Joe Lunn, Liisa Malkki, Charles van Onselen, Elizabeth Tonkin and Jan Vansina, the present paper focuses on the representation of African oral histories and interviews in books written by and for academics. Through discussion and close textual analysis, the paper argues that, in a postmodern milieu, ethical, efficient and effective strategies for titling and then writing interviews and oral histories, as well as talking about the narrating self, are difficult to establish. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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