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Paper short abstract

This paper draws on intergenerational stories about marriage and the metaphor of “promise” which links generations, diverse social histories and their memories. It asks how history, temporality and social transformations shaped their decisions, choices and life trajectories.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the intergenerational stories of marriage of a mother and her daughter in a middle-class suburb of Athens. It focuses on the challenges they faced before and during their marriages. It considers how H/history, temporality and social transformations shape personal decisions, choices and life trajectories. Central to the analysis is the concept of the “promise”, which is perceived not only as a moral commitment between two persons, but also as a metaphor linking generations and the diverse social histories they carry with them. Family’s histories bear stories, traumas, silences and emotions in different contexts relating to laws, bureaucracies and political frameworks, which younger generations inherit, reorganise and reinterpret, thereby contributing to broader social change and transformation. Each generation produces different “promises” regarding marriage, kinship and intimate relationships more broadly. Marriage emerges as a place where personal biography and collective history intersect and where everyday life becomes a medium through which H/history is inscribed and continually reimagined.