Memoryscapes

By Caroline Cunfer

This thesis builds upon Luisa Passerini’s notion of a collective autobiography to explore my own experience living in Paris during the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks alongside those of my narrators’. Through centering intersubjectivity and reflexivity, it reconstructs memory and meaning from the Paris attacks in the form of a polyphonic collage, using diary and creative transcription to mirror and to translate the intimacy of these encounters. Its form aims to replicate the intersubjective moments between narrator and interviewer as the reader enters into an intersubjective space with the text, myself, and my narrators, illuminating the knowledge and relationships produced through the dialogic encounter of the oral history interview.

 

 

Caroline Cunfer: Caroline is an oral historian and interdisciplinary artist located in Providence, Rhode Island. Her OHMA thesis builds upon Luisa Passerini’s notion of a collective autobiography to explore her own experience of living in Paris during the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks alongside her narrators’ through diary and creative transcription. She is pursuing a PhD in American Studies at Brown University with a Masters in Public Humanities.