Sidorenko, Ewa (2022) Remembering the war: an autoethnography of survival. Qualitative Inquiry, 28 (3-4). pp. 365-377. ISSN 1077-8004 (Print), 1552-7565 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004211066881)

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Abstract

This is an autoethnography of World War II (WW2) survival and trauma based on a recovered family archive and a reflexive engagement with my own childhood memories. Driven by subjective imperatives to bear witness to forgotten war experiences, and to explore family mental health problems, I delve into not just personal memories but forgotten voices found in the archive whose stories have never been told thus offering a perspective of multiple subjects. My grandmother’s witness testimony of concentration camp survival recorded in 1946 compels me to research and reflect on life in the state of exception and the long-term and intergenerational impact on survivors. This autoethnographic work helps me examine the character of survival of war trauma as a form of exclusion from community and often an incomplete return from bare life to polis. Through engaging with the archive, I find some partial answers to questions about my family members, and reconstruct my family memory narrative.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	autoethnography, ethnographies, methodologies, survival, memory, war, concentration camps
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D731 World War II D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Education (EDU)
Last Modified:	01 Mar 2022 15:44
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/34767

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