Editing Oral history (section)

== Controversies ==
In Guatemalan literature, ''I, Rigoberta Menchú'' (1983), brings oral history into the written form through the [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/testimonio ''testimonio''] genre. ''I, Rigoberta Menchú'' is compiled by Venezuelan anthropologist Burgos-Debray, based on a series of interviews she conducted with Menchú. The Menchú-controversy arose when historian David Stoll took issue with Menchú's claim that "this is a story of all poor Guatemalans".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burgos-Debray |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Menchú |first2=Rigoberta |last3=Wright |first3=Ann |title=I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala |date=2009 |publisher=Verso |location=London |isbn=978-1-84467-418-3 |edition=Second English-language}}</ref> In ''Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans'' (1999), Stoll argues that the details in Menchú's ''testimonio'' are inconsistent with his own fieldwork and interviews he conducted with other Mayas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stoll |first1=David |title=Rigoberta Menchú and the story of all poor Guatemalans |date=2008 |publisher=Westview |location=Boulder, CO |isbn=978-0-8133-4396-9 |edition=Expanded}}</ref> According to Guatemalan novelist and critic Arturo Arias, this controversy highlights a tension in oral history. On one hand, it presents an opportunity to convert the subaltern subject into a "speaking subject". On the other hand, it challenges the historical profession in certifying the "factuality of her mediated discourse" as "subaltern subjects are forced to [translate across epistemological and linguistic frameworks and] use the discourse of the colonizer to express their subjectivity".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arias |first1=Arturo |title=Authoring Ethnicized Subjects: Rigoberta Menchú and the Performative Production of the Subaltern Self |journal=PMLA |year=2001 |volume=116 |issue=1 |pages=75–88 |jstor=463643}}</ref>