Drifting: Feminist oral history and the study of the last female drifters in Iceland

• Published in: Feminist Research
• Main Author: Eygerðardóttir, Dalrún J.
• Other Authors: Sagnfræði- og heimspekideild (HÍ), Faculty of History and Philosophy (UI), Hugvísindasvið (HÍ), School of Humanities (UI), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Gatha Cognition 2018
• Subjects: Metoo; Women’s history; Narrative dances; Women’s oral tradition; Female drifters; Feminist oral history; Sagnadansar; Flökkufólk; Munnleg saga; Munnleg geymd; Kvennasaga; Konur; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/753; https://doi.org/10.21523/gcj2.18020101

This paper examines the story of the last female drifters in Iceland from the voices of women who remembered them. It examines the advantages of the woman-on-woman oral history interview when obtaining women’s perspectives on women’s history. An examination of women’s narrative techniques suggests that women’s narrative style is often consistent with a conversational style; therefore it is important to construct a space in woman-on-woman oral history interviews that carries a sense of place for a conversation. It also examines the woman-on-woman oral history interview as a continuation of women’s oral tradition in Iceland, especially an oral tradition from medieval Iceland called a narrative dance (ice. sagnadans). Lastly, it examines the shared features of the Icelandic #Metoo event stories and the Icelandic narrative dances, in relation to woman-on-woman oral history interviews. Peer Reviewed