Προφορική ιστορία και μνήμη: η μυθοποίηση μιας πραγματικότητας. Η περίπτωση των Ελληνίδων “νυφών με προξενιό” στην Αυστραλία

Abstract

Please note: this article is in Greek. Oral history and memory: mythologizing of a reality. The case of Greek “proxy brides” in Australia: In this paper we attempt to analyse the narrative conventions through which the experience of Greek “proxy brides”, who came to Australia in the 50s and 60s, is reconstructed and re-told today. Contrary to the official historical narratives which try to persuade their reader about the authenticity and objectivity of their content, these oral narratives are both subjective and “unprocessed”, representing the immediate essence of lived experience. In all their forms, they testify to the selective, somehow falsifying, even mythologising function of memory, as a result of the restrictive barriers imposed on it, not only by the social and cultural reality of today, but much more of an oppressive past. Finally, through such oral narratives we can clearly see the way through which the individual, social/cultural and more importantly the gender identity/conscience of these women has been formed and expressed.