Co stanowi o odmienności historii mówionej

A text from the age of great debates on the scientific status of research based on material considered by many historians to be of questionable value. In his paper, Alessandro Portelli deals with the doubts and accusations made not only then, but also today, wherever “the phantom of spoken history” shows up. This manifesto of sorts has great educational value, since it organises and explains the issues of epistemological and technical nature fundamental for oral history, including the reliability of oral sources, the consequences of their oral nature and the role of transcription, and finally, the objectivity of the message. Reprint: A. Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History, State University of New York Press, Albany 1991, s. 45–58 State University of New York Press, Albany, 1991, p. 45–58, courtesy of State University of New York Press. The first version – “Sulla specificita della storia orale” was published in Primo Maggio (Milan, Italy), 1979, vol. 13, p. 54–60, later reprinted as “The peculiarities of oral history” in History Workshop, 1981, no. 12, p. 96–107. [Translation based on: A. Portelli, “What makes oral history different”, [in:] The Oral History Reader, A. Thompson, R. Perks (eds.), London, New York 1998, p. 63–74. The permission to publish the translated version of the article has been granted by the author. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. (editor’s note)]