Auto/biographical oral histories, from 'oral memoirs' to The Life of Nate Shaw (1948-1974)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Auto/biographical oral histories, from 'oral memoirs' to The Life of Nate Shaw (1948-1974)

AU - Trower, Shelley

PY - 2017/3/1

Y1 - 2017/3/1

N2 - This essay considers how a selection of early oral history projects in the US, from the 1940s to the 1970s, served to extend written, auto/biographical traditions, but also helped to break open the traditional canon and to challenge generic definitions. It begins with the production of 'oral memoirs' of elite leaders by the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University (in the 1940s and 1950s), then moving on to focus mainly on the auto/biographies by Malcolm X/Alex Haley (1965) and Nate Shaw/Theodore Rosengarten (1974). These narratives are modelled on the traditional genre of the individual autobiography or biography that represents the life of a single person, but the latter two publications, in particular, also begin to challenge generic conventions. This shift reflects an early moment in US oral history when it began to turn from elites to previously marginalised voices. The essay analyses how the co-creation of these texts by the interviewer and narrator prevents any final categorisation of them as autobiographical or biographical, and goes on to argue that Rosengarten's use of the tape recorder enables The Life of Nate Shaw to move furthest from literary tradition in its incorporation of orality. © 2017. This is the final published version of the article (version of record) uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy.

AB - This essay considers how a selection of early oral history projects in the US, from the 1940s to the 1970s, served to extend written, auto/biographical traditions, but also helped to break open the traditional canon and to challenge generic definitions. It begins with the production of 'oral memoirs' of elite leaders by the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University (in the 1940s and 1950s), then moving on to focus mainly on the auto/biographies by Malcolm X/Alex Haley (1965) and Nate Shaw/Theodore Rosengarten (1974). These narratives are modelled on the traditional genre of the individual autobiography or biography that represents the life of a single person, but the latter two publications, in particular, also begin to challenge generic conventions. This shift reflects an early moment in US oral history when it began to turn from elites to previously marginalised voices. The essay analyses how the co-creation of these texts by the interviewer and narrator prevents any final categorisation of them as autobiographical or biographical, and goes on to argue that Rosengarten's use of the tape recorder enables The Life of Nate Shaw to move furthest from literary tradition in its incorporation of orality. © 2017. This is the final published version of the article (version of record) uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy.

KW - Autobiography, biography, tape recorder, black history, orality

M3 - Article

VL - 45

JO - Oral History

JF - Oral History

IS - 1

ER -