Oral History Narrators in Czech Military Reenactment: An Epistemological Case Study

Abstract

Between 2022 and 2024, a large-scale oral history research project was conducted in the Czech Republic, covering, for the first time, the culture and contemporary history of military reenactment. A total of 140 oral history interviews were recorded in a community that had no written history. The project’s findings, particularly concerning the production of historical meaning by certain reenactors, have already been published. Nevertheless, one research problem has emerged with the benefit of hindsight: the epistemological status of the project’s narrators, who, in many cases, constructed their identities as historical connoisseurs who often claim to ‘know better than professional historians.’ This article analyses various strategies adopted by some narrators who frame themselves as historical connoisseurs to present their knowledge as superior, enabling them to take various value-laden stances. Authoritative reenactment studies have mostly emphasised the classic concept of embodied knowledge, symbolised especially by the ‘period rush’ phenomenon, a subjective time-travel kind of experience. However, the project narrators employed more varied strategies, e.g., authoritative witnessing, claims of symbiosis with non-human actors, or so-called ‘miasmic connection’.