An Analytical Comparison of Memory Writing with Oral History

Memories are one of the sources used by historians in historical research and are alsoa foundation for oral history, as a distinctive method in historiography. Reminiscencewriting, with dierent styles and formats, has a long background in the history of Iransculture and literature. In recent years, for several reasons, the old tradition of memorywriting in its various forms has re-emerged among a wide range of individuals. On theother hand, productions of the scientic method of oral history, as one of the newestmethods for collecting the historical data needed by historians, sociologists and psychologists, have increased. Some use the title "oral history" to refer to the documenting of memories in a variety of ways. "e key question is whether it is scientically correct to refer to various types of memories (autobiography, biography, written and spoken) as oral history? "e answer is that memory writing and oral history have basic dierences in their nature, mechanism and function. "us it is necessary to distinguish between memory writing and oral history in order to comparatively analyze the two. "is paper aims to provide the common denitions of memory, memory writing and its dierent types, and to describe the functions and compare the features of memory writing with oral history. Moreover, the brain’s function, as the container of memories, is brie"y mentioned.