The Acquisition of Memory by Interview Questioning: Holocaust Re-membering as Category-Bound Activity
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2009
Keywords
epistemic rights, Holocaust, interview, membership categorization, memory, questioning
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445608100945
Abstract
In this discourse analysis of how memory acquires and is acquired in interview exchanges, we investigate remembering as a category-bound activity, both a tensional and collaborative process of moral ratification of `survivor' as membership category. We propose the term re-membering to mean piecing together possible versions of survivor experiences in talk; these versions, offered by respondents and elicited by interviewers through questioning strategies, are epistemic claims to acquire the Holocaust as memory, or institutional History. We explore the accounting dynamic of interviewer and respondent, the relationship of ownership between survivors and memory, and the duties and moral obligations of the category `Holocaust survivor' that can be shown through the interviews of survivors and their adult daughters.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Discourse Studies, v. 11, issue 2, p. 223-243
Scholar Commons Citation
Bartesaghi, Mariaelena and Perlmutter-Bowen, Sheryl, "The Acquisition of Memory by Interview Questioning: Holocaust Re-membering as Category-Bound Activity" (2009). Communication Faculty Publications. 596.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/spe_facpub/596
