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ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2014, No. 2 (7), History and Gender

Agata Stolarz
The military, gender, and oral history: on “female” stories about the experience of fighting during World War II

PDF version
Keywords: oral history, women’s narratives, World War II

Abstract:
The human’s story about his/her experience is affected by many different factors. One of them is the specific social roles and expectations of both women and men. The text starts with this statement and considers it on the example of concrete material. I analyze the oral stories of women who participated in the battles of World War II: women who served in The Red Army (stories collected by Svetlana Alexievich and published in the book The Unwomanly Face of the War) and women who fought in the Warsaw Uprising (stories published in book form and available on the website of Oral History Archives of Warsaw Rising Museum). Referring to selected examples from this material, I try to show how the specific social roles and expectations of women, like for example the “mother-sitter” or “Pole-patriot” can affect women’s stories. How those roles can work on “official” way of telling about this experience. I consider also the oral history method. According to the statements that oral history is also a performance; I try to answer how the chosen model of this method may also influence the story in the context of gender.

About Author:
STOLARZ AGATA – historian, assistant in the East-Central European Institute.

References
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