Paper short abstract:

This paper is a methodological reflection on working with older people. I compare two ways in which people narrated their life histories to me, asking what it might reveal for thinking about the temporality of story-telling in anthropology more generally.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is a methodological reflection on working with older people. I will describe two cases of recording life histories, using it to reflect on the temporality of ageing and its relationship to fieldwork practice. A number of my informants agreed to record their life histories with me. The temporal kink of storytelling for me was a gap, a location from which to reflect on the ageing process. The ways that they narrated their lives — mostly in the living rooms of their homes — allowed me to reflect on many aspects of one's relationship to past and present selves. No one life history was recorded in the same way; I offered to each complete freedom in this regard. One person drew me into their world with photographs of their past. Another refused to let me use a voice recorder preferring instead to write their life as what they called a film script and discuss it with me. I pay attention to the queer temporality revealed in ways of narrating the life course, and what it might reveal for thinking about the location of life history and narration in anthropology more generally.