Research On Inheritors Oral History Of Space-time,Memory And Text

As the earliest form of history record adopted by man,oral history derives from folktale in ancient times featuring historic narrative traditions.There are numerous oral activities and materials in the folk,such voluntary individual narratives or collective narratives of the public in daily life.Oral traditions and daily statements are the bases for interview and research of oral history;originator of oral history is the anthropology which attaches importance to the researches on life history and oral tradition,and anthropologist has conducted cultural practice and cultural research based on oral tradition of human and formed a set of systematic theoretical methods,while emergence of the academic concept “Oral History” is merely the result developed and perfected by historian on basis of the academic tradition and method adopted by anthropology to oral history research.This research adopts such methods as interview method and comparative research method,aims at discussing application of the oral history method in the research field of inheritor by analyzing numerous oral history materials of inheritor,develops analysis from such aspects as time-space interweaving,cultural memory research orientation and the writing and style of oral history text,states oral practice and text construction of the oral history of inheritor,and summarizes characteristics of the oral history of inheritor other than oral history in other types.Inheritor refers to the interviewee who can complete oral history interview successfully and give oral statement successfully,and he/she can inherit history,record history and narrate history.In agriculture civilization period,all of the folk culture is inherited naturally,and all inheritors are natural inheritors.Different from naming of representative inheritor and artificiality of affirmation system of the national intangible cultural heritage project,natural inheritor refers to the folk cultural inheritor generated naturally and spontaneously in tradition and life before emergence of the concept of heritage,and he/she conducts cultural practice activities spontaneously and consciously.“Time-space” specially refers to interweaving of time and space,and it eliminates the possibility of different time-space interlacing and different time overlapping.Inheritors all live in concrete time and space,and their behaviors are molded and restricted by the time and space.Time orientation is the characteristic of the oral history activity of inheritor,and emergence of the content of memory part in oral statement just bases on that time differentiates the current from the past.Inheritor expresses memory mainly in the form of oral statement,and the oral content is social culture history memory included personal life history of inheritor.Inheritor is creator and holder of folk culture,as well as subject of the writing of folk culture,and historical culture memory of inheritor is not only oral content of inheritor but also main body of the writing content of oral history of inheritor.During oral statement and writing,memory authenticity,reminiscence authenticity,oral authenticity and writing authenticity are required,and the restriction factors and correlations are the key for memory research of oral history of inheritor.Cultural memory is cultural orientation of the memory research of oral history of inheritor,and the materials of memory formation are summation of all recognitions of the people related to the past,including recognitions to material object,practice,knowledge,symbol and emotion,etc.These materials are also various cultural symbols,and the medium of arousing memory.The materials of memory are expressed and narrated symbolically after that the memory should be roused,and then the symbolic relation is established again and meaning is interpreted,which is just the process that various memory symbols activate and rouse memory and complete oral statement,meaning endowment and interpretation.Inheritance of cultural memory of inheritor includes the three forms of written tradition,body inheritance and oral inheritance,memory inheritance possesses distinct body characteristic,and oral inheritance of memory has close relation with tradition.Individual narrative and collective narrative are the two important forms of memory statement mechanism of inheritor.Individual narrative refers to the narrative that narrator represents him/herself and mainly gives oral statement of the own experience,including the two forms of informal individual narrative in daily life and academic interview of oral history.Collective narrative shows not only in forms of oral statement and ritual performance but also in such materialized writings as epigraphy,village chronicles and genealogy.Formation and statement of cultural memory of inheritor possess characteristics of selectivity and context reconstruction,which results in the restriction of validity and limitation of the interview and writing of oral history of inheritor.Oral history of inheritor is a cultural practice relying on oral statement,which follows experience propagation and knowledge production,namely construction and propagation of knowledge and experience.Oral history interview is the source of oral history text of inheritor.In concrete operation,attention shall be paid to preparation of corresponding oral history interview outline by aiming at different type of inheritor and to connection function of the intermediary of interview.During the data processing and conversion from sound recording to text of oral history,information loss and misreading are inevitable for existing of such problems as dialect understanding,so it needs to give survey on pronunciation,vocabulary and grammar of dialect.Application of oral history method in different discipline creates the oral history text in different form.One can analyze similarities and differences between oral history text of inheritor and that of historiography,literature,folklore and anthropology by integrality comparison,discover characteristics of the oral history of inheritor in content and form,and try to summarize writing criterion of oral history text of inheritor.Interpretation of oral history text is a process of rediscovery,and so it is even for text writer.Text meaning not only lies in expression of language symbol but also lies in inherent embodiment of text structure,namely that different text structures can result in multiple meanings of text,which leads to the possibility of interpretation of oral history text.Simultaneously,interpretation of oral history text is also a process of reproduction of knowledge,which means generation of new implication and emergence of expression mechanism.From the view of emergence process of oral history of inheritor(namely content,method and achievements of interview),it contains time-space(history),memory(oral statement activity)and oral history text.Logical relations of the three can be synthetically summarized as follows: memory provides text with raw materials and view,and text is result and reflection of oral statement;memory moulds and restricts text,and text is reflection and presentation of memory;memory gives oral statement of reconstruction and maintains historical operation,and time-space derives,stimulates and incurs memory.In short,oral history of inheritor possesses the multi-dimension research paths of oral history method,oral history material and oral history text,etc.This paper draws support from the oral history concept and academic method of historiography,returns to academic tradition and research sights of anthropology and folklore,and discusses the problems related to oral history methodology of inheritor.