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Life Stories and Living Texts

The Political Use of Oral Sources in the Storytelling of Turkey’s Past

Carlotta De Sanctis    Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia    

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abstract

This contribution deals with issues related to the use of oral sources in historical research carried out during times marked by high political tensions and it focuses on the case of contemporary Turkey. Storytelling implies selection and assembly, through which interviewees shape an image of themselves but also of their relationship with others and with the world. The purpose is to analyse the narrative potential of oral sources by examining a sample of biographical testimonies of left-wing intellectuals who actively contributed to the constitution of the ‘civil society’ during the 1980s. The selected interviews show how contemporary political events deeply affect the relationship with the past.

Published
Dec. 6, 2018
Accepted
Sept. 24, 2018
Submitted
July 6, 2018
Language
EN

Keywords: Contemporary TurkeyOral HistoryInterviewsNew Social Movements

Copyright: © 2018 Carlotta De Sanctis. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.