Floether, Jennifer

By Kristi Raffa

Oral history captures a first-person account of the life experiences of a narrator. It is the creation of an auditory primary source (the recorded conversation) that is then used to create a second, written primary source (the transcription). The human component of multiple actors synthesizing speech and text with human experience and emotion calls for a pause in how oral history ought to be perceived. Oral history is an art in itself.