Plurality and Individuality. Autobiographical Cultures in Europe

The international workshop »Plurality and Individuality: Autobiographical Cultures in Europe« was organized in collaboration with the »Dokumentation lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen« at the Institute of Economic and Social History, University of Vienna, which was initiated by Michael Mitterauer more than ten years ago. Since 1983, this archive collects autobiographical manuscripts written down by old people coming from all over Austria and also from some other regions of the former k.u.k. Monarchy. The actual corpus contains approximately 900 texts; a little part of them has been published within the book series »Damit es nicht verlorengeht…«, which actually contains 31 volumes (see appendix). Most of the manuscripts of the »Dokumentation lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen« can be defined as »popular autobiographies«. Many of the authors are lower class, about 65 per cent are women. Corresponding with the main interests of the various historical research projects based on the archive lied on so-called »history from below«, »every-day-history«, questions about gender and womens’ history.