Ebook: Refiguring the Archive

Refiguring the Archive at once expresses cutting-edge debates on `the archive' in South Africa and internationally, and pushes the boundaries of those debates. It brings together prominent thinkers from a range of disciplines, mainly South Africans but a number from other countries. Traditionally archives have been seen as preserving memory and as holding the past. The contributors to this book question this orthodoxy, unfolding the ways in which archives construct, sanctify, and bury pasts. In his contribution, Jacques Derrida (an instantly recognisable name in intellectual discourse worldwide) shows how remembering can never be separated from forgetting, and argues that the archive is about the future rather than the past. Collectively the contributors demonstrate the degree to which thinking about archives is embracing new realities and new possibilities. The book expresses a confidence in claiming for archival discourse previously unentered terrains. It serves as an early manual for a time that has already begun.

---

---

Content:
Front Matter....Pages 1-6
Introduction....Pages 7-18
The Power of the Archive and its Limits....Pages 19-27
The Archives and the Political Imaginary....Pages 29-37
Archive Fever....Pages 38-38
Psychoanalysis and the Archive: Derrida’s Archive Fever ....Pages 39-60
A Shaft of Darkness: Derrida in the Archive....Pages 61-82
Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form....Pages 83-102
‘Picturing the Past’ in Namibia: The Visual Archive and its Energies....Pages 103-134
The Archival Sliver: A Perspective on the Construction of Social Memory in Archives and the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy....Pages 135-160
The Archive, Public History and the Essential Truth: The TRC Reading the Past....Pages 161-178
The Human Genome as Archive: Some Illustrations from the South....Pages 179-192
‘The History of the Past is the Trust of the Present’: Preservation and Excavation in the Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa....Pages 193-208
‘Living by Fluidity’: Oral Histories, Material Custodies and the Politics of Archiving....Pages 209-228
Orality and Literacy in an Electronic Era....Pages 229-242
Holdings: Refiguring the Archive....Pages 243-282
Literature and the Archive: The Biography of Texts....Pages 283-300
Keeping the Self: The Novelist as (Self-)Archivist....Pages 301-322
Electronic Record-keeping, Social Memory and Democracy....Pages 323-332
Blackbirds and Black Butterflies....Pages 333-361
Back Matter....Pages 362-368

---

Content:
Front Matter....Pages 1-6
Introduction....Pages 7-18
The Power of the Archive and its Limits....Pages 19-27
The Archives and the Political Imaginary....Pages 29-37
Archive Fever....Pages 38-38
Psychoanalysis and the Archive: Derrida’s Archive Fever ....Pages 39-60
A Shaft of Darkness: Derrida in the Archive....Pages 61-82
Colonial Archives and the Arts of Governance: On the Content in the Form....Pages 83-102
‘Picturing the Past’ in Namibia: The Visual Archive and its Energies....Pages 103-134
The Archival Sliver: A Perspective on the Construction of Social Memory in Archives and the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy....Pages 135-160
The Archive, Public History and the Essential Truth: The TRC Reading the Past....Pages 161-178
The Human Genome as Archive: Some Illustrations from the South....Pages 179-192
‘The History of the Past is the Trust of the Present’: Preservation and Excavation in the Gay and Lesbian Archives of South Africa....Pages 193-208
‘Living by Fluidity’: Oral Histories, Material Custodies and the Politics of Archiving....Pages 209-228
Orality and Literacy in an Electronic Era....Pages 229-242
Holdings: Refiguring the Archive....Pages 243-282
Literature and the Archive: The Biography of Texts....Pages 283-300
Keeping the Self: The Novelist as (Self-)Archivist....Pages 301-322
Electronic Record-keeping, Social Memory and Democracy....Pages 323-332
Blackbirds and Black Butterflies....Pages 333-361
Back Matter....Pages 362-368
....