Tuning In: Emotions, Relations, and Dynamics in the Analysis of an Archived Interview

Abstract

ABSTRACT Oral historians have reflected for many years on how to analyze archived interviews. This article contributes to this vital discussion by demonstrating how the combination of different approaches (contextual, narrative, and auditory) enhances a secondary analysis. We base our argumentation on one specific example: a passionate conversation between an elderly man, who had lived through the Nazi period in Germany as a communist, and a much younger historian. After a long and mostly harmonious interview (lasting seven and a half hours), the interviewee broke off the conversation. Our focus therefore lies on exploring the development of the communicative relationship between interviewer and interviewee. To do this, we first locate the interview within the historical and biographical contexts from which it emerged. Second, we consider its auditory dimension and listen closely to when, how, and which questions are asked and answered. Finally, we take the narrative and conversational logics into account. We argue in favor of taking seriously the “heuristic power of the ears,” in the words of Barbara Duden. 1 By listening (rather than only reading transcripts), we can better reconstruct the interactional dynamics and emerging emotions in archived interviews.