Article published In: Real Fictions: Fictionality, factuality and narrative strategies in contemporary storytelling
Edited by Sam Browse, Alison Gibbons and Mari Hatavara
[Narrative Inquiry 29:2] 2019
► pp. 268–292
Adjusting to new “truths”
The relation between the spatio-temporal context and identity work in repeated WWII-testimonies
Published online: 16 October 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19020.sch
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19020.sch
Abstract
In this article, we study the diachronic (re)construction of repeated WWII-testimonies. Specifically, we
scrutinize how shifting master narratives in the social context may affect how stories are told in a particular time and place. We
selected testimonies by two Belgian concentration camp survivors – one Flemish and one Walloon – who both wrote down their story
twice, namely in 1946 and 1985. By comparing the “same” diachronically dispersed stories – thus addressing the temporal
dimension – and the differences in the narrators’ regional background – thus incorporating the spatial dimension – we study how
overlapping and differing storytelling environments influenced the narratives’ construction. In the analyses, we adopt an
interactional-sociolinguistic approach to illustrate the storytelling environments’ influence upon the story formulations and the
relativity of what is presented as the “truth”, since the narrators continuously adjusted their stories and identities to fit with
the ever-evolving storytelling context.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Research question
- Method and data
- Sketching the different storytelling contexts: WWII-remembrance in Belgium
- Analysis
- Stephen
- Philip
- Discussion and conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
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