Narratives of Former Prisoners Interacting with the Master Narrative at the Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen

Keywords

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Issue Date

2022-08-10

Language

en

Document type

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Title

ISSN

Volume

Issue

Startpage

Endpage

DOI

Abstract

Because of the debate on the role of eyewitnesses in remembering the GDR, I aimed to elucidate how the personal narratives of former prisoners of Hohenschönhausen interact with the master narrative that is presented at the Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. Through observational methods, I gained insight into the navigation strategies of personal narratives within master narratives. The results from the analyses on both personal narratives and the master narrative at the memorial museum showed that former prisoners mainly accept the presented master narrative. In addition, it illustrated the ability of former prisoners to reject certain parts and simultaneously accept other parts of the master narrative. I also found that the personal stories are complementary to the master narrative, in the way that they strengthen it. Thus, personal stories of former prisoners interact synergistically with the presented master narrative of the Gedenkstätte-Hohenschönhausen.

Description

Citation

Supervisor

Faculty

Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen