Volume 1, No. 2 – 2000, June

The Shared Construction of Texts

Olaf Jensen

Abstract: This paper discusses methodological questions raised in the context of a multigenerational study on the historical consciousness of the national socialist past in Germany. It focuses on an often underestimated aspect, namely that communication—especially if it is about National Socialism—implies, that its contents and "results" are jointly produced by its protagonists in the course of interaction. Accordingly, the intersubjective creation of the data is considered to be a crucial issue in qualitative analyses. The Hermeneutic Dialogue Analysis is introduced as a method to identify and examine these negotiation processes. In addition, content analytic methods are presented and preliminary results of the research project "Traditions of Historical Consciousness" are reported.

Key words: Communicating history, historical consciousness, National Socialism, intersubjective production of text, Symbolic Interactionism, Objective Hermeneutic, Hermeneutic Dialogue Analysis, Grounded Theory, qualitative content analysis, WinMax

About the research project

The research project "Traditions of Historical Consciousness" examines how the "Third Reich" continues to have an effect on the minds of the Germans. The project commenced in October of 1997 and is conducted through the Institute of Psychology at the University of Hanover. Funding has been provided until September 2000 by the Volkswagen Foundation. The qualitative research is comprised of interviews with three generations from forty German families. Interviews had been conducted with the members of each generation as well as group discussions amongst the three generations of each family. The members of the families were asked to recount their lived and narrated experiences from the "Third Reich". The interviews provide material to represent what Germans remember about the "Third Reich", as well as presenting their selection process in the material they choose to hand down from one generation to the next. [1]

The premise of the research project is that the "Third Reich" effects the generations who experienced it directly as well as the generations which follow. The younger generations become enmeshed in these past through cultural and communicative methods of transference. The project attempts to identify these modes of transference through the analysis of the interview transcripts. Analysis of the interviews will combine hermeneutic and content analytic methods. The content analysis is assisted by the software-tool WinMax. The interdisciplinary approach draws on theoretical and methodological concepts in social and cultural psychology, life history research and oral history. The project "Traditions of Historical Consciousness" aims to achieve a deeper understanding of how the representations of the "Third Reich" enter the collective memory and the ways in which the interpretative patterns are handed down from one generation to the next. [2]

Jensen

This contribution is only available as a full text in the German language. German text

Last update: 01/30/2003

Volume 1, No. 2 Table of Contents

[qualitative-research.net] [Home] [Inside FQS] [Features] [Services] [Submission]
[FAQ] [Advertising] [Search FQS] [Newsletter] [Editorial Team]