Vidnesbyrdets vidner: Receptionsangst og etik i mødet med det interviewede vidne

Resumé

Witnessing the Witness: Anxiety of Reception and the Survivor Interview:

In this article I highlight and discuss the ethical challenges raised in and by the reception of witness interviews, focusing on audiovisual and written interviews with survivors from what is commonly referred to as Holocaust. The article falls into three parts. In the first part I outline the basic features of witness interviews, arguing that such interviews may be described according to the different answers they provide to questions regarding authenticity, performativity and interactivity. Drawing upon recent theoretical approaches from the study of testimony and witness narratives, the second part of the article presents and discusses different ways of positioning oneself as the receiver of such cultural artifacts, suggesting the term ‘anxiety of reception’ to describe a common difficulty shared by these approaches, a difficulty not easily, if at all, avoidable. The final part of the article extends this discussion by turning towards some of the experiences gained during the making of a recent Danish publication of witness interviews – Vidnesbyrd: Danske fortællinger fra tyske koncentrationslejre (2008) [Testimonies: Danish Stories from German Concentration Camps], collected and edited by Henrik Skov Nielsen, Stefan Kjerkegaard and myself.