Below is a selected and annotated bibliography of scholarly works concerning oral history, with a particular focus on survivor testimony in the context of genocide and mass violence. While in no way comprehensive, this list’s purpose is to direct those interested in research with testimonies to some of the major works on this topic in the fields of history, oral history, and genocide and memory studies. The bibliography is compiled by the staff at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research.
“Technology, Trauma and Representation: Holocaust Testimony and Videotape.” In Temporalities, Autobiography and Everyday Life, edited by Jan Campbell and Janet Harbord, pp. 204-218. Manchester University Press.
A discussion of an approach to and agenda of the genre of video testimony.
“Shades of Truth and Lies: Interpreting Testimonies of War and Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 47(2): 231-241.
The article discusses so-called “meta-data” in survivor testimonies, that is their spoken and unspoken thoughts and feelings not articulated in their stories or interviews.
Probing the Ethics of Holocaust Culture. Harvard University Press.
An important collection of essays by some of the leading scholars in the field that focus on the new forms of Holocaust representation, including the rise of digital archives. The volume explores the politics and ethics of Holocaust memory from the perspective of comparative genocide studies, digital humanities, and media and memory studies.
Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History. Routledge.
The book discusses the relationship between narrative and history, art and memory, and between speech and survival. Written from a literary and clinical perspective, the book represents an endeavor to articulate the relation between witnessing, events, and evidence.
History of Oral History: Foundations and Methodology. AltaMira Press.
Discusses the history of oral history; oral history as evidence; research design and strategies in oral history practice; legal and ethical issues in oral history; oral history interviews; oral history and archives; and the transcription and editing of oral history.
Listening on the Edge: Oral history in the aftermath of crisis. Oxford oral history series. Oxford University Press.
A collection of oral history case studies that focus on the survivors’ stories in the aftermath of crises ranging from genocide to mass shootings around the world.
“Framing the Witness: The Memorial Role of Holocaust Video Testimonies.” In Remembering for the Future: The Holocaust in an Age of Genocide, edited by J.K. Roth, E. Meynard-Maxwell, and M. Levy, pp.189–204. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
A book chapter that discusses the question of video testimony in terms of the difference between its content and its “framing.”
History, Memory, and the Genre of Testimony. Poetics Today 27(2): 261–273.
An important article about the interrelationship between history and memory, and the role of survivor testimony in historiography, with a discussion of the genre of video testimony.