Constructing moral stance in intergenerational trauma memory narratives

Abstract

Approaches to intergenerational memory (IgM) view it as a construct between personal and collective remembering in family stories impacting identity development. This article explores the dynamic construction of moral stance as a narrative dimension within the context of intergenerational perpetrator trauma memory accounts embedded in descendant life history narratives. Four retellings of the same IgM narrative constitute the longitudinal case study to demonstrate the construction of a moral stance by shifting the focus from what had happened to reveal the perspectives in retrospect. In these stories, IgM takes a central space where the family’s moral stance emerges as a continuum. It consolidates the storyteller’s evaluative statements to control possible interpretations, explore existential issues in a broad cultural context, and re-narrate trauma as a choice. We conclude that emphasizing moral stance as a dimension of IgM trauma narrative telling reconciles agency and rewrites the narrative as a tellable family history.