(Feb. 14, 2009)
Earlier this week, I interviewed my older cousin, Rachel, my Uncle Len (Busia's brother), and my grandfather. It seems like the more people I interview, the more materiel I have. This isn't a bad thing, but I guess I'm just not sure what I'm going to do with it all, or how I'd combine it all together. Sure, some of it goes with my original plan of just focusing on my deceased relatives, learning more about them. But most of the information I'm getting is more related to Busia and her life.
This isn't of course a bad thing: I shouldn't be trying to fit my ideas around what my family is actually telling me about what's important to them. However, I'm begining to think I'll have to change my focus of the end product. Before, I was planning to talk about my Polish ancestors as much as humanly possible becuase I wanted to learn more about them. We never talk about them at family gatherings, so I felt pretty oblivious. But now I realize Busia and Uncle Len don't talk about them becuase they don't know much about it. Though their parents were trying hard to keep the Polish roots strong, Busia and Uncle Len were trying to fit in with their friends.
So, long story short, this project may be transforming into something different than I idealized.
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You wrote: "I shouldn't be trying to fit my ideas around what my family is actually telling me about what's important to them."
ReplyDeleteActually, real fieldwork does just that. Having a direction and a set of research questions is important. But being willing to follow the direction your community takes you is a sign that you are doing the work "correctly" and respectfully. If you asserted your own agenda too forcefully, you might not get the quality information you're getting about Busia and you might leave your relatives with a bad taste for your efforts.