Syllabus
To work within the framework of Oral History, i.e. the framework of subjective interpretation of personal and public history, means to face two basic obstacles: a) it is important to create a special relation to a respondent, similar to friendship, b) it is even more important not to succumb to the illusion that a respondent (or better: the story-teller, your friend) can be, regardless of usual autocratic words, strict to him/herself to such a degree as not to filter personal and public history through his/her (always naturally vane) ego. The third difficulty related to the above mentioned framework is not an obstacle but a problem.
To transmit a verbal expression well from a tape to a paper means to create for the respondent a new language, de facto. That is in essence the most difficult thing to do in this profession.
Spoken Czech is saturated with pronouns, words repetition, it has a miserable syntax etc. The literal transcript creates nonsense. If we speak of the new language, we have in mind such a language, which is characteristic of written form of Czech and the spoken Czech remains characterized by a unique testimony, only because it gives to the language form of the one who speaks.
Annotation
Students gain insight into the ethical principles and research techniques of oral history, the discipline based on a subjective interpretation of personal and public history.