Embodied memories of trauma: oral history and archetypes

Through the analysis of interviews recorded with Norma Holmes, a woman born in New Zealand in the late 1920s from a French mother and a Chinese father, this article considers how traumatic experiences are recalled and shared by individuals though archetypical and uncanny narratives. In particular, it explores the surprising interrelation between Norma Holmes story and the archetypical narratives analysed by Carlo Ginzburg in his work on the witches sabbath. This unlikely connection illustrates the need to acknowledge the historical depth that oral storytelling of traumatic events often carries. Phantasmatic and archetypical, yet deeply embodied, memories and narratives should be at the core of our understanding of the past, and how it lives in the present.