Surviving in the landscape of war memories : oral history work in progress

Abstract

Reconstructing the social past of the common people is a particularly laborious and problematic task. In the case of the Maltese the task is even more difficult The majority of the Maltese population, many of whom were illiterate, left sparse records of their daily affairs which, in any case, were not considered to have much historical significance, From the massive quantity of official accounts, commentaries and reports, as well as published and unpublished documentation deposited in the archives and libraries of the State, Church, and other power institutions, one can gather only fragmentary information on the 'conditions of the labouring population', Besides, more often than not these contemporary archival records and chronicles rellect the established power structures which governed the discourse of the time. Imparting a top to bottom vista, most of these written narratives are usually characterised by flat, one dimensional accounts of the population, particularly when it comes to the 'lower classes' and 'the poor'. The common people's perspectives, perceptions, and desires are simply neglected, if not deliberately repressed from these supposedly authoritative narrations. Not surprisingly, social historians of the modern period, who have sought to reconstruct the ordinary lives of the people by employing their own memories, voices, world views and concerns, have found the formal archival terrain, from which most conventional history has been constructed, rather sterile and have thus set out to investigate alternative fields of research.