{"id":2878,"date":"2026-03-22T23:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/memorijalnicentarrs.com\/?page_id=2878"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:19:09","slug":"usmena-istorija","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/memorijalnicentarrs.com\/en\/usmena-istorija\/","title":{"rendered":"ORAL HISTORY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oral history represents a significant research aspect in contemporary historiography, but also in the culture and politics of memory, which enables access to the experiences, perceptions, and testimonies of \u201cordinary people\u201d \u2013 the quiet heroes who often remain beyond the reach of classical written sources and the traditional historiographical approach to the past. Its importance is particularly reflected in expanding the sources of historical knowledge, not only in a quantitative sense, but also in a qualitative one, because it brings new layers of knowledge and meaning that include personal \u2013 individual testimonies, memories and experiences, emotions, cultural patterns, as well as social frameworks and contexts. In this way, we can more easily understand what happened to the individual, but also the historical, event-based, and cultural context in which it occurred, that is, the context in which they lived and acted. This approach is especially important in the study of society, particularly those events and processes where, by the nature of things, written documentation is scarce, administratively-bureaucratically sterile, incomplete, or ideologically shaped and conditioned.<\/p>\n

In the developmental context of historical science, oral history has contributed to the expansion of the historiographical picture by shifting the focus from exclusively \u201cgreat\u201d events and elites, great historical figures, or as we would say \u201cthe mountain tops\u201d, towards \u201cordinary\u201d people and their life experiences. In this way, history is enriched with micro-historical insights that enable a more complex understanding of the past. At the same time, the history of ordinary people emerges through the \u201cbottom-up\u201d approach, which better explains not only the way of life but also the mental and cultural patterns of action throughout the past. People who, with the classical approach, would never have come into the focus of historiography are now becoming part of the portrayal of the past. Oral testimonies often reveal the everyday frameworks, ways and conditions of life, survival strategies in ordinary, regular, but also in extreme situations, as well as the ways in which individuals understand and interpret historical processes, making them irreplaceable in the reconstruction of national, social and cultural movements.<\/p>\n