Only After Death Do Us Part? Contemporary Biography, Oral History, and Writing about Living People Today

Abstract

This essay explores the area of contemporary biography, i.e., biographical research about living people conducted in the field of historical sciences. A special emphasis is put on oral history and its use in selected biographies, older and recent, which serve as examples of several specificities of this approach. Furthermore, the author finds two ideal-typical roles that the main protagonist may play in this type of biographical writing, both participative, with the first being relatively “silent” and the second more “vocal.” The essay touches on problems such as negotiating the roles of the researchers and the research subject, authorization, research ethics, current legislation, and the pros and cons of this approach. More broadly, this article aims to widen the range of theoretical and methodological discussion in the field of biography studies. It also illustrates that contemporary oral history-based biographies have a long tradition from which we may draw on for our future projects.