Articulating Continuity, Documenting Change: Life-Storytelling in Oral History and Folklore

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Genealogy invites essays on the topic, "Articulating Continuity, Documenting Change: Life-Storytelling in Oral History and Folklore”. Since the onset of modernity, cultures and communities around the world have long faced transformative and at times rapid social and cultural change. As this trend accelerates, to ground oneself in history’s shifting terrains and to stay connected to their homelands and communities, many individuals engage in life-storytelling, either on their own terms as a part of personal search for the roots or prompted by researchers. Communicating familial continuity in the context of dramatic social change oftentimes is a work of cultural translation, as a person shares her or his life story outside of their native milieu. Focusing on how life stories and autobiographical narratives engage with social and familial change, we invite scholarly contributions that explore life-storytelling as a grassroots cultural practice that both documents social change and strives to articulate familial continuity. Contributions, as an example, may focus on oral history (as practiced in once oral cultures), folklore (as a form of traditional expression), and research outcomes (as in oral history projects); the fields where life-storytelling has been actively pursued as a means to maintain or illustrate cultural, ethnic, national, and familial continuity. What tools/means/strategies do narrators utilize to achieve their goals? What forms might contemporary grassroots life-storytelling take in various communities? What audiences might it serve? What cultural and political purposes may such life-storytelling pursue? What factors might drive it? In what ways might modern life-storytelling, frequently directed at outsider audiences, differ from more traditional contexts in which life-storytelling was practiced among insiders?

We invite scholars from across disciplines (anthropology, ethnic studies, sociology, history and others) to reflect on these and other related questions. Some potential contexts for this discussion and avenues of exploration may include but are not limited to the following:

• Life story narratives of change from the comparative perspective;
• Autobiographical narrative across family generations;
• Diaspora/homeland life narratives of familial continuity and change;
• Post-coloniality and personal life narrative;
• Post-totalitarianism and life-storytelling;
• Migration and life-storytelling;
• Ethnic minorities and life-stories;
• Personal life-narratives and indigenous contexts;
• Political uses of life-storytelling.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Oral history 
• Folklore 
• Life-storytelling 
• Personal life-narratives 
• Familial continuity and change