Theory Six: The Inevitability of Perspective
Machine Translation Edited by Mandana Karimi
2026-09-04
Oral history, more than an accumulation of narratives, is a field of methodical dialogue between memory, power, ethics, and representation. In the meantime, one of the challenges for researchers in this field is to move from “interview report” to “theoretical structure,” a question to which each expert, based on their own experience and intellectual framework, give a different answer.
If we provide the answers of 12 oral history experts - who have answered a specific question on the oral history website - to artificial intelligence, what patterns and repetitions will be obtained? Is artificial intelligence simply reflecting the consensus of opinions or will it arrive at a theory from the plurality of answers?
To find out the result, we analyzed the experts’ answers with the help of DeepSeek artificial intelligence and arrived at some theories.
From now on, theories extracted by artificial intelligence will be presented in order based on the experts' responses, opening a new chapter in theorizing on the topic of oral history.
Theoretical statement:
The narrator's social position is not a marginal factor, but a "condition for the narration to happen"; each narrator inevitably see through a lens that their class, occupational, educational, and cultural position have created for them - whether consciously or unconsciously. This "situational lens" not only determines the angle of view, the choice of details, tone, and language, but also, at a deeper level, directs memory, shapes possible expediencies, and even organizes the narrator's self-image and their perception of the interviewer. Hence, the difference in narratives in oral history is not a defect but a "sign of authenticity"; because it is a reflection of the fact that no one stands outside history to look at history directly.
Theoretical Background:
This theory is based on the responses of 12 oral history experts (Gholamreza Azari Khakster, Mohammad Mehdi Behdarvand, Hassan Beheshtipour, Abolfazl Hassanabadi, Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzadeh, Gholamreza Azizi, Seyyed Mohammad Sadegh Feyz, Hamid Ghazvini, Mohammad Mohsen Moshafi, Abolfath Momen, Shafighe Niknafs, and Seyyed vali Hashemi) to the question “Does the narrator’s social status affect the expression of memories?” The repetition of concepts such as "the influence of class, occupational, educational, and cultural status on the perspective and selection of details," "interest-based and selective recall of memories based on the narrator's current situation," "the difference between the narrative of a war commander and an ordinary combatant," "the role of the narrator and interviewer's mutual perception of each other," "the influence of social status on language, tone, and style of expression," "increasing the social credibility of memories to the benefit of those in power," "conscious or unconscious interference of status in the formation of the narrative," and "the plurality of narratives as a sign of authenticity, not defect," in these responses has led artificial intelligence to the model you studied.
Click here to see the experts' initial answers to this question.
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