Thinking affect (back) into oral history

This chapter uses Dodd’s research on children in Second World War France as a case study to examine how affect can be thought more explicitly into the practice of oral history. It outlines how affect was sidelined in representational approaches to oral history. It explores how Dodd employed conceptual tools derived from affect studies in her own work. She notes the value of assemblage thinking, asserts that memories are made of feeling, recognizes open-endedness in the face of unknowability, and suggests the virtual may be as important as the actual in multitemporal narratives. The chapter concludes with possibilities for future research directions.