Rural women have not had a formative role in the public histories of Central Eastern Europe.
Izabella Agárdi aims to correct that by concentrating on their life stories and their
connections to general histories. She investigates how Hungarian-speaking ordinary women in
rural contexts born in the 1920s and 1930s remember and talk about the twentieth century they
have experienced and how through their stories they articulate historical change and
construct themselves as historical subjects. In her analysis Izabella Agárdi traces the
interactions between micro- and macro- narratives as well as the specific tools women of this
generation appropriate to talk about personal memories of their often traumatic past. From
these stories a particular mnemonic community emerges one that speaks from a highly
precarious position 'on the verge of history'. It is up to future generations whether these
women's experiences will be remembered or forgotten.
