Conversations for the Real World: Shared Authority, Self-Reflexivity, and Process in the Oral History Interview

Abstract

This essay explores the notion of self-reflexivity in the oral history interview process. Referring to oral historian Michael Riordan’s attempt to assume the role of the interviewee as a failed experiment, the author tackles the challenge himself. Using this experience as a launching point for his analysis, the author argues that oral historians would benefit from allowing themselves to undergo a life story interview as storytellers. Such an experience can help oral historians improve their ability to be self-reflexive and relate better to their interviewees, thereby enhancing their capacity to achieve what Michael Frisch calls a “shared authority.”