Chapter ‘What your generation probably don’t understand is …’

Abstract

Whilst it is recognised that oral history fosters discussion across generations, there remains scope to consider how generational perceptions of subjectivity, as expressed by both the interviewer and interviewee, inform interview dynamics. Drawing on the author’s own experiences interviewing women about their changing everyday health experiences, this chapter explores the influence of intergenerational dynamics in oral history. It first considers how interviewees defined their generational positioning in different ways during the interview encounter. Second, it examines how and why some interviewees applied their own assumptions about their generation and its behaviours to the author. It then reflects on the generational assumptions that the author brought to interviews, focusing on the sense of familiarity she often felt when interviewing women of the same generation as her mother. Unpacking this familiarity also helps the author to comprehend why interviewing women of her mother’s age triggered deep emotions both during and after interviews, leading to moments of self-discovery relating to her own experiences. The chapter considers how these momentary revelations influenced the interpersonal dynamics of the interview. Finally, it briefly summarise how other oral historians have responded to these intergenerational dynamics, both during and after the interview. Intergenerational conversations are an intrinsic facet of oral history, and multiple forms of intergenerationality can be generated during the oral history encounter. Understanding how these varied intergenerational dynamics are constructed and resultantly make us feel further expands our understanding of the influence of researcher subjectivity during the oral history process.