Biography, Memory, History: Are Narrators of the Past Custodians of Historical Accuracy or Architects of Selective Oblivion?

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable will explore the intricate dynamics between biography, memory, and official narratives, raising the critical question of whether established accounts impede our ability to accurately remember and recount historical events and aiming to enlighten their interplay. The roundtable will explore the challenges and possibilities of crafting polyphonic intellectual biographies (intertwining voices) by going back to Bakhtin’s heteroglossia; the complexities of interpreting highly politicized self-representations in Polish communist biographies by juxtaposing lives hidden, written, and forgotten; the departure from traditional historical narrative structures in the work of Olga Tokarczuk and her innovative focus on multiple perspectives, narratives and palimpsestic structures; the rewriting of biographical narratives by post-1989 Czech elites in order to revisit past memories, present politics, and future legacies; and the potential of polyphonic voices to provide a better understanding of the past and provide an opportunity for empathetic reconciliation.

Each participant will contribute to the overarching theme of unraveling the impact of historical narratives on collective and personal memory and vice versa. By bouncing these perspectives against one another, this roundtable will beckon us to ponder whether the narratives that we study are the product of custodians of historical accuracy or of architects of selective oblivion.

Sub Unit

• History: Since 1990

Chair

• Muriel Blaive, U of Graz (Austria)

Roundtable Members

• Omer Bartov, Brown U

• Muriel Blaive, U of Graz (Austria)

• Anna Muller, U of Michigan, Dearborn

• Daniel Webster Pratt, McGill U (Canada)

• Marci Lynn Shore, Yale U