'We just moved in, and this is it': Autoethnography of Home and Post-WWII (Dis)remembrance in Lviv

• In Event: Through War and Communism: “Unofficial” Memories and Their Role in Contemporary Scholarly Discourse

Abstract

In Lviv, recollections of inhabitants of old houses about their previous residents, particularly those belonging to groups who perished during World War II or were displaced in the post-war resettlements, serve as valuable oral-historical sources. However, systematically collecting such material presents significant challenges. An autoethnographic approach may help fill narrative gaps and address the "unhomeliness" of one’s own home as a space shaped and once inhabited by others. At the same time, autoethnography can reveal a more unsettling realization: the researcher, as an implicated subject (Rothberg 2019), may, through their entangled family history, have inadvertently contributed to sustaining traditional power structures and reinforcing uncanniness of borderland home-making.

Author

• Eleonora Narvselius, Lund U (Sweden)