Documenting Cultural and Historical Memory: Oral History in the National Park Service

"Documenting Cultural and Historical Memory: Oral History inthe National Park Service" provides an overview and assessmentof the current state of oral history projects and programs withinthe National Park Service. Oral history has long been a particularlyvaluable resource and tool for the Park Service in preservingcultural and historical memory. Its rangers, interpreters, historians,archaeologists, ethnographers, and cultural landscape specialistsuse oral history to document the history of individual parks,as well as the events and people the parks commemorate. Theyuse oral history to create interpretive exhibits, movies, andvideos and to record perspectives on major events, figures,and movements. The Service initiates and manages a large numberof unique and significant oral history projects and programs. However, too often the value of its oral history projects andcollections has been diminished because of funding shortages,poor equipment, insufficient training, inadequate preservationmeasures, or other problems.     

庙会、传说与历史--对费县龙王堂庙会的调查与思考

阴历六月初六,山东民间称为“过半年“.在临沂市费县的东部和南部,这是一个仅次于春节的大节.这一天,不仅家家户户祭祖、敬天,各个村庄的村民还要敲锣打鼓到位于县城东南10公里处的龙王堂“送驾“①.庙宇前一片长不过3公里、宽不过1公里的小山坡上,每年庙会,都能聚集上万之众,人们在这里敬神、娱神、求神、游挝艺、交易,盛况空前.即使在文革期间,六月六去龙王堂烧香送驾的情景也从未间断.2005年7月8日至12日,山东大学文史哲研究院民俗学研究所师生一行7人,②对费县的龙王堂庙会进行了全面、细致的田野调查.……     

History and Story: Unconventional History in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient and James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific

"Literary history" is a cross between conventional (scientific) history and pure fiction. The resulting hybrid provides access to history that the more conventional sort does not (in particular, a sense of the experiences of the historical actors, and the human meaning of historical events). This claim is demonstrated by an analysis of two novels about World War II, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, and Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener. These two very different novels in English are by writers themselves very different from each other, writers from different times, different social and political backgrounds, and different points of view. Their novels examine the effects of the Second World War and the events of 1942 on the human psyche, and suggest how human beings have always searched for the silver lining despite the devastation and devaluation of values. Both novels resist any kind of preaching, and yet the search for peace, balance, and kindness is constantly highlighted. The facts of scientific history are woven into the loom of their unconventional histories. The sense of infirmity created by the formal barriers of traditional history is eased, and new possibilities for historical understanding are unveiled.