Self-Identity, Empathy and Sympathy in Reading Transcripts

Abstract

When conducting oral history interviews empathetic relationships tend to be created between the researcher and the subject, and this is seen as an essential aid for historical and/or sociological analysis. This article examines the basis of these empathetic relationships - the emotional reaction of the interviewer to what is being narrated by the interviewee. It goes on to question whether it is possible to maintain an emotional/empathetic relationship with ‘unlikeable’ subjects; whether the emotions created during an interview are retained when the interviews are transcribed, archived, and accessed by researchers who did not carry out the original interviews (sometimes many years after the interviews took place). Lastly, it examines the implications that this may have for interpretive analysis