Narrative Dead-Ends Down Memory Lane

Abstract Oral history interviews, and the testimony collected, depend on the interaction between the narrator and the interviewer. A different interviewer, interviewing for a different project, would prompt different responses. We argue that, to properly assess the status of the data collected in oral history interviews, we need to attend to the dynamic and oral nature of narration. In this paper, we draw on resources from the philosophy of language to offer a toolkit that can track negotiation of narratives within oral history interviews. We argue an understanding of the reliability of oral history data must be sensitive to the ways in which narratives are co-constructed within interviews.