WITNESSING AND MEMORIZING: ON NARRATIVE MEDIATION OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Autorica govori o teorijsko-metodološkim i moralnim problemima etnografskog pristupa analizi svjedočenja kao žanra usmene povijesti i literaturi svjedočenja kao autobiografskoj prozi. Uz folklorističke teme, kao što su stereotipnost pripovijedanja o osobnom iskustvu hrvatskih prognanika i sudionika domovinskog rata u svakodnevnom životu, literaturi i medijima, te utjecaj recepcije i modusa posredovanja na dohvaćanje smisla pripovijedanja o traumatičnom iskustvu, autoricu zanimaju i problemi na sjecištu antropologije, etnografije i naratologije. Naime, na koji se način osobno iskustvo upisuje u povijesno pamćenje, koje su konvencije predstavljanja i vrednovanja osobnog iskustva - osobito odnos prema nasilju - relevantne za pojedine zajednice i društva i njihovo re-interpretiranje povijesti?The author argues the theorethical-methodological and moral implications of ethnographic analysis of testimonies as oral history genre and testimonial literature as authobiographic genre. She points out the role of the witnessing issue in mediation of alternative histories - personal, family, local histories - and, in addition, the importance of narrating the lived experience as historical memory in such media as literature, historiography and national narrative. Testimonial discourse varies from that of written narrative and public history, being a polyphonic and ambivalent discourse whose moral strength questions the legitimacy of mediating history through language, facts and figures. Above all, testimonies affect with their appellate function, with their ultimate personal experience, therefore, any attempt at depersonalization, objectification and quantification would invalidate this genre. The same applies to anthropology-oriented analysis which is primarily interested in conventions of representation and evaluation of personal experiences within the cultural, simbolical and ideological models of community