Inter-Subjectivity

Abstract

The Basque pro-independence terrorist group ETA (an acronym for what translates to ‘Freedom for the Basque Country’) announced a definitive ceasefire in 2011. A year later, I began a PhD on how the Basque conflict could be understood from the life stories of ETA activists. After completing my research, I asked myself: What kind of tensions emerged during the interview process with ETA activists who collaborated in my research taking into account my family background and my Spanish identity? Instead of just appearing as a bidirectional relation between the narrator and the interviewer, inter-subjectivity reveals more powerful mechanisms as it helps reveal hidden collective traumas of the Spanish population where I, as the historian, become part of the story.