Autobiographical Narrative of Traumatic Experience: Disruption and Resilience in South African Truth Commission Testimonies

Following a suggestion by Crosthwaite (2005) that autobiographical narratives can be viewed as organizational practices, this article turns attention to events of recalling and articulating personal histories of trauma produced during and after the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings of 1996–8. Witness testimonies at the TRC were institutionally framed to fit the aims of national reconciliation in ways that may have...