Intergenerational and Collective Memory’s Role in Constructing Ethnic Identity: A Study of Interview Narratives and Hungarian Folktales

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Intergenerational memory (IgM), expressed in narrative form, is the mental and linguistic
representation of a series of past events drawn from the lives of the rememberer’s ancestors.
Located between personal and collective memories, IgM answers existential questions and
positions the individual in the surrounding culture. Scholarship on intergenerational memory
focuses on the impact of IgM sharing on mental health, its role in identity construction, and the
connection between personal, intergenerational, and collective memories (Fivush, R. 2011;
Fodor, M. 2019; Pohn-Lauggas, M. 2021. Findings reveal that intergenerational family memory
is often fragmented, marked by clues or figurative language only, seeming transient or easy to
miss in any narrative form.
In this talk, I will discuss and compare the features of intergenerational memory narratives from
interview excerpts with third-generation Hungarian Americans and selected Hungarian folktales
in 19 th -century collections to show how the narrative construction of intergenerational memory
is identical or very close. I aim to pinpoint that the Hungarian folktale is a collective memory
form that provides essential memory-sharing structures and meaning-making tools observable
in life-history interview-based narratives. I analyze the interview excerpts and the folktales with
narrative and discourse analysis to identify the narrative features of tellability, memorability,
and context-embeddedness. My analysis highlights how Igm’s appearance in remnant memory
fractions displays similar narrative features across genres, revealing remarkably similar identity
work. The findings provide more information on how narrative structure travels across genres,
especially in non-literary narratives, and demonstrate how acquiring narrative forms inherent in
folktales determines our life story telling modes.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Mónika Fodor is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Literatures and Cultures at the University of Pécs. She has published on the conversational and discourse analysis of narratives, identity, ethnicity, oral histories, narrative, and memory in ethnic identity construction and using culture as content in the EFL classroom. Her recent research focuses on the role of intergenerational memory in narrative meaning-making in collective remembering.