International Forum on Audio-Visual Research - Jahrbuch des Phonogrammarchivs 9, pp. 183-192, 2019/05/02
The starting point for this essay is the history of the edition of the Recordings from Prisoner-of-War Camps, World War I by the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. By comparing this edition with previous publications concerning the academic studies of prisoners of war during World War I, it will be argued that a considerable strength of this edition lies in the thoughtful contextualisation and exploration of the conditions under which the recordings were made. It is precisely the history of the recordings which defines its value. Considering the context of power asymmetry between the researcher and the researched, the question is raised whether the recordings document a historically unique situation of fieldwork, or represent a rather common form of fieldwork.
Keywords: Recordings from prisoner-of-war camps, Phonogrammarchiv, history of the recordings, contextualisation, power
