The purpose of this article is reporting a research on stories of the life and memories of the inhabitants of a small village in the east region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Using as methodological strategy the "oral story-telling", and as theoretical references the works and studies by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin and Mikhail Bakhtin, the concepts history, memory and narrative are here analyzed based on the discursive practices between the researcher and the inhabitants of Córrego dos Januários. The results of this work contribute to the comprehension of action and discourse of men as a condition to the exercise of ethics and politics in practical life and, consequently, bring out the importance of singular experience and the unique presence of each and every person in the world. The disclosure of the question "Who are you", introduced by Hannah Arendt in her work The Human Condition, is here analyzed from the point of view of the life stories of the individuals involved.
memory; oral history; Hannah Arendt; Walter Benjamin; Mikhail Bakhtin
