Experts Answers to Oral History Questions

100 Questions / 37

Can Oral History Cover All Dimensions of an Event?

Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi

2026-7-8

We asked several researchers and activists in the field of oral history to express their views on oral history questions. The names of each participant are listed at the beginning of their answers, and the text of all the answers will be published on this portal by the end of the week. The goal of this project is to open new doors to an issue and promote scientific discussions in the field of oral history.

In this project, a question is asked every Saturday, and we ask experts to present their views in the form of a short text (about 100 words) by the end of the week. All the answers will be published together so that the audience can compare and analyze the views.

The content is the opinions of the senders and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Iranian Oral History website. Although the answers are supposed to be around 100 words, in order to be polite and not to leave the discussion incomplete, in some cases, more than this amount of answers will be accepted.

This time, we asked experts to send their answers by Sunday night so that all the answers can be published on Tuesday.

From the intertwining of these answers, using artificial intelligence, we have arrived at theories about oral history that will be published in the near future.

Question 37:

Can oral history cover all aspects of an event?

Answers to Question 37:

Gholamreza Azari Khaksatar

The answer to this question can be examined from two perspectives. First, when it is possible to interview multiple witnesses of an event and each one narrates part of it. In this case, by putting together different narratives, as pieces of a puzzle, different aspects of the event can be reconstructed and recorded. In other words, field studies and access to relevant documents and evidence, through the plurality of narratives, lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the event. Second, when access to the narrators and primary witnesses or documents related to the event is not possible. In such circumstances, it will be difficult or even impossible to access all dimensions and angles of the event. Therefore, a single narrative cannot cover all dimensions of an event. Therefore, access to primary witnesses and the use of multiple narratives is considered one of the most important pillars of oral history.

Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzadeh

A scientific insight into oral history causes us to pay attention to its limitations as a research method and source, in addition to paying attention to and using the significant advantages of oral history. Oral history helps to recreate the not-so-distant past of various events using the archives of individuals' minds and its use is considered part of historical sources. Therefore, to achieve greater credibility, the data obtained from interviews should be compared with other memories in the same subject and field and other documents, evidence, and evidence available in that field should be used. Because oral narratives are personal and subjective and are influenced by the narrator's memory, beliefs, and individual perspectives. Documents and evidence produced at the time of the event are used to determine the exact time and place and the sequence of events.

Hassan Beheshtipour

As the Persian proverb says: "Everyone knows everything," no narrator, historian, or collection of documents can achieve the absolute truth and reality of an event. Oral micro-narratives, though valuable and alive, are incomplete jigsaws of thousands of pieces, each looking at the event through a narrow lens. Official written documents, though necessary, are also written from the perspective of the document’s author and may have many blind spots. Therefore, emphasizing this important principle, the answer must be no, and this is not a defect, but the nature of history.

The solution to compensate for this deficiency is not to collect these micro-narratives together, but to “critically synergize” them. By comparing conflicting narratives, reconciling with written documents, and accepting the fact that history is always fluid and incomplete, we can advance the work of oral history. The value of our work is not in achieving a final narrative in oral history, but in illuminating hidden angles and preserving a plurality of voices. In this way, oral history becomes “a path to continuous questioning.”

Abolfazl Hassanabadi

Oral history, due to its human nature, is memory-based and based on the narrator's personal life. It also relies on feelings, fears, hopes and motivations. Through oral history, layers of reality can be revealed that are usually not recorded in official documents, relying on lived experience, feelings, motivations and hidden narratives. Because with written documents, it is possible to examine only the official structure, time accuracy and stability of information and provide the possibility of reconstructing macro processes, administrative decisions and power structures. Each of these two sources alone provides an incomplete picture of the past, and with intelligent combination, the desired result can be achieved.

Abolfat’h Mo’min

Oral history is based on interviews with witnesses or actors of events, but each narrator narrates only part of the story from his or her own perspective; and that too in a situation where memory, time, and unconscious re-creations have transformed the narrative. Although this method illuminates some angles, it never covers all the dimensions of an event, even with dozens of interviews. Therefore, oral history must be supplemented with written documents, archives, and publications in order to perhaps reach a closer truth. However, not even all these sources can provide a complete picture, because the selection and expression of the narrative always depends on the perspective of the historian and narrator, and inevitably, parts of the event are overlooked or forgotten.

Hamid Qazvini

Oral history attempts to record and publish the narratives of people related to the event or those who have direct or indirect knowledge of tithe extent to which it can capture all the narratives from all aspects of the event is questionable. In any case, some narrators may not have been identified, may not agree to be interviewed, may face various limitations and shortcomings in telling the narrative, some aspects of the event may have been hidden, or documents and information may have been published later. Therefore, it cannot be said with certainty that oral history covers all aspects of the event, but rather it must be said that this method of historiography plays a complementary role alongside other research methods.

Shafiqeh Niknafs

The answer to this question is definitely negative. Because, as E. H. Carr says in his book What is History? "Historical facts never reach us in their pure form because they never existed and cannot exist in their pure form. History always secretes from the historian's brain. As a result, whenever we pick up a historical book, our attention should first be focused on the historian who wrote it, not the facts contained in it." Therefore, historiography is a relative matter. In oral history, the role of subjectivity in the formation of the narrative is important; which memory is chosen to be narrated, what dimensions the narrative is expressed in, the extent of the influence of the environment and the influence of collective memory on the narrator's mind, what information the mind recognizes as important to express, what information the interviewer recognizes as important and asks the interviewee, how skilled the interviewer is in helping to recall the memory, and so on. All of these affect the formation of memory and narrative. Therefore, an oral history narrative is not a complete narrative and such an expectation cannot be made of it.

Gholamreza Azizi

In the present era, oral history has flourished due to reasons such as: one-sidedness, lack or loss of documents, as well as the individual/individuals being outside the scope of official historiography (for reasons such as being in ethnic, racial, religious, gender minorities, etc.); because these interviews could make incomplete or vague documents and documents clear and add depth to the information contained in them. I believe that in many cases, documents and documents play the same role for oral history interviews; because these interviews require the historian to refer to documents and documents not only for accuracy and verification but also for clarity. For these two reasons, oral history interviews alone cannot determine all aspects of the event.

Seyed Mohammad Sadeq Faiz

Oral history, like other tools of historical studies, cannot express and cover all aspects of an event. Because it is neither omniscient nor comprehensive. Rather, it represents a part of the whole. This part can only become a comprehensive history when used alongside other tools.

There is no expectation of it because the narrator himself is limited and the interviewer must take him further into the labyrinth of memories to explore more points and add to the richness of the work, although it will never be complete. Let us add to this that the narrator cleverly conceals some things and makes others seem big or small.

Jafar Golshan Roghani

It is obvious that oral history cannot cover all aspects of an event. In fact, this is one of the characteristics and features of the science of history that it cannot be claimed with certainty that all aspects of an event have been expressed. Because with the publication of each new writing and research, new dimensions and understanding of that event and issue emerge, and as a result, new aspects of it emerge. On the other hand, let us not forget that if we consider oral history as one of the methods of historical research, the use of oral history only obtains, classifies, presents, and analyzes a part of the data and information. Other parts and angles of an event are extracted and presented with other methods and tools. Therefore, it is clear that oral history cannot cover an event comprehensively and without hindrance.

Artificial Intelligence

No, oral history alone cannot cover all dimensions of an event. Although this method achieves vivid narratives, emotions, and unseen details from the perspectives of the underprivileged, it is inherently selective, memory-based, source-influenced, and limited to the witnesses who are available. For complete coverage, it must be supplemented with written documents, statistical data, material evidence, and multi-faceted analysis. Oral history is a vital complement, not a substitute, for the whole truth. (deepseek)