Recalling Of Childhood: Looking For innocence In Near/Far Historical Nostalgic

Individuals' self-construction process often integrates the cultural views of self. In Western particularly North American cultures, individuals view themselves in terms of their personal attributes and qualities. In East-Asian cultures -China and Japan- individuals give prominence to interpersonal harmony, collectivity, social stratification, social roles and relationships. That is why self-construction process should be discussed with the cultural frame. Undoubtly, childhood can be thought as critical term in the self- constructing process. Although childhood is the first stage of human life, identity and personality are also shaped throughout this stage. In this study, childhood memories were gathered through the oral history method from two generations. One of the groups was comprised of fifty subjects from the period of 1950s; the second group of fifty subjects was comprised from 1980s. In this study, plays, toys, subjects' childhood narrations and self-stories were discussed in political, social, and cultural context. The data, which are gathered via oral history, were analyzed by the content analyzing method. This qualitative study also points out that the construction of self and childhood are re-constructed with the subjects' memories and narrations in different context, time and spatial periods. The present study also discusses a sense of nostalgia in the social, political, and cultural context. Adapted from the source document.