[Personal_archives] Singular moments and some destruction
Sara Janes
sara.janes at gmail.com
Wed Apr 23 21:39:23 EDT 2008
One thing that always sticks in my mind is any evidence that a person
is aware that his or her records might be kept around and viewed by
the public.
This awareness of posterity is apparent in Maryanne's two articles, of
course, as her subjects are public figures who recognize that their
letters are being preserved.
I'd be interested in any examples you might have of where a person's
record-creating and record-keeping style changes with time, possibly
as a result of having become recognized as a public figure.
And might not even "ordinary" people -- those who do not view
themselves as public figures -- be consciously self-censoring diaries
and letters, which we often assume to be truthful because of their
private nature? I'm not sure that it would be always possible to know.
Sara
(with little experience but a lot of interest)
On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 9:55 AM, Amy Furness <amy.furness at gmail.com> wrote:
> As part of my PhD coursework in archival studies, I spent some time
> trying to build a definition / characterization of personal archives
> from the ground up. Particularly since the literature within the
> archival field is still sparse (though growing, thanks to Catherine,
> Maryanne and others!), it was important to look into other fields,
> including literary studies. My approach -- shared by others who have
> tackled the same problem -- included looking at / generalizing from
> things written on individual record "genres", diaries and
> correspondence being among the most widely written-about. I was
> struck by the readiness with which many authors in the literary
> studies field would treat diaries and letters as though they were the
> equivalent of diaristic or epistolary fiction -- i.e. works of
> literary art, to be considered as if they had the same deliberate
> origin and intentionality as a published work. The fallacy is easy
> when so many personal archival documents do have artistic qualities --
> plus of course the exciting immediacy that we all recognize. I tend
> to think this is a crux of understanding personal archives: that they
> resemble creative works -- indeed cannot be fully explained without
> acknowledging their creative aspects -- and yet also cannot be
> understood without archival approaches to the context of creation,
> materiality, and myriad practical considerations about collecting,
> institutional practices, the marketplace, etc. etc.
>
> I'm really enjoying this discussion so far -- unfortunately it is
> coinciding with a very busy week for me professionally, so I have to
> keep my comments brief!
>
> Amy Marshall Furness
> PhD Candidate, Archival Studies
> Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 5:04 PM, Maryanne Dever
> <Maryanne.Dever at arts.monash.edu.au> wrote:
> > I think Sylvia's point is a really important one and it comes up
> > frequently in literary studies – but maybe isn't commented on very
> > much. I'm thinking here of the way a particular sentiment expressed in
> > a single archived letter will be quoted as though it represented a
> > enduring life philosophy rather than, as you say, something expressed
> > in the moment! The example that has troubled me is another Barnard
> > one. Barnard maintained a correspondence for decades with critic
> > Nettie Palmer and when in 1935 she learned from Nettie that she was
> > keeping her letters, Barnard responded thus: "By the way what
> > possessed you to tell me that you kept my letters? It was enough to
> > scuttle me as a correspondent". This line is quoted frequently to
> > suggest that Barnard had a "life long" anxiety about her letters being
> > preserved which simply isn't so. She learned in the 1940s that Palmer
> > was quoting from them in a published selection of her journals and was
> > evidently quite chuffed. She was also cons
> > ulted about the transfer of her letters to the National Library as
> > part of the Palmers' papers and she not only appears to have agreed
> > but later drew people's attention to them.
> >
> > On the conditions under which letters are sometimes written (and how
> > this affects handwriting, choice of stationery etc) I always like this
> > description Barnard gives of her letter-writing habits:
> >
> > At one o'clock in the morning I'm liable to say anything. I'm writing
> > in bed, the lamp carefully draped with a dark blue slip so that my
> > family shall not see it and come to reproach me for getting a little
> > more out of the day than they think proper. A devious creature but I
> > must milk the night if I'm to get any time to myself.
> > Marjorie Barnard to Nettie Palmer, 30 March 1939.
> >
> > Barnard was 41 years old at this point! Her worst handwriting is when
> > she is writing on the morning ferry.
> >
> >
> > On the question of destruction/survival and material literacy, there
> > is a very interesting essay by Lynda K. Bundtzen, 'Poetic Arson and
> > Sylvia Plath's "Burning the Letters"' which I've just found. She talks
> > about how 'acts of textual violence or abuse [destruction of each
> > other's work/papers] …were…habitual in the Plath-Hughes marriage.' She
> > then talks about how when Smith College rare books collction purchased
> > some of Plath's papers they also received parts of Hughes' papers
> > because Plath had written her work on discarded of Hughes'. Bundtzen
> > writes: "Many of her final poems are written on his backside, so to
> > speak: Plath recycles old manuscripts and typescripts by Hughes, and
> > often she seems to be back talking, having the last word in an
> > argument. The friction between these two bodies is palpable at times,
> > as text clashes with text, and one intuits Plath's purposeful coercion
> > and filleting of Hughes's poems and plays as she composes … If
> > Plath's "rare" body is skillfully
> > re-membered for public viewing and scholarly dissection, Hughes' seems
> > at times hopelessly dismembered, scattered and disordered. Her words
> > are on top and one peeks at the other side, often finding her ink has
> > bled through, indelibly splotching and staining Hughes' work'.
> >
> > (That essay is in Anita Helle, ed. "The Unravelling Archive: Essays on
> > Sylvia Plath". Ann Arbor: Uni of Michigan Press, 2007, pp.236-53.)
> >
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Maryanne
> >
> > --
> > Assoc. Prof. Maryanne Dever
> > Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, Monash University,
> > Melbourne
> > President, Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA)
> >
> > Visiting Scholar, McGill Center for Research and Teaching on Women
> > (MCRTW), Apr-Jun 2008
> >
> > Bank of Montreal Visiting Scholar in Women's Studies
> > University of Ottawa, Jan-Mar 2008
> >
> > Mailing Address:
> > Centre for Women's Studies & Gender Research
> > School of Political & Social Inquiry
> > Faculty of Arts
> > Monash University
> > Victoria 3800 AUSTRALIA
> >
> > Tel. 61 3 99053259
> > Fax. 61 3 99052410
> > http://arts.monash.edu.au/womens-studies/
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Hobbs Catherine <catherine.hobbs at lac-bac.gc.ca>
> > Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 4:14 am
> > Subject: [Personal_archives] FW: FW: Re: 'the fragmentary,
> > shifting ice floe'
> > To: Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
> >
> > > Aha! That's a strong draw from my perspective as well... ...what
> > > does "material literacy" as Maryanne and others (like Ala Rekrut)
> > > call it indicate about state of mind? Are we not a forensic
> > > profession in a very strong sense? Can we not look for motive and
> > > the state of mind of the documentor at the particular moment in
> > > time... (when the clues are there)?
> > >
> > > I am reminded of a wonderful group of letters held here between
> > > novelist Elizabeth Smart and her friend Didy Asquith. The letters
> > > are in pencil, written hastily in pages torn from small notebooks
> > > while ES was looking after her three young children on a farm in
> > > Ireland. The letters contain many references to her poverty
> > > (having to feed her children on boiled nettles, for example) and
> > > her lover George Barker's repeated visits (one where he racks up
> > > an immense bar bill at the local pub which ES has no hope of
> > > paying off). The content is important to understanding her
> > > psychology but it is made ever more present and ever more
> > > momentary when you notice the crescent shaped finger nail holes
> > > which ES has made along the side of a number of the sheets.
> > >
> > > I love the fact that you situate the creator at a particular
> > > moment in his/her present.
> > >
> > > Catherine
> > >
> > >
> > > Catherine Hobbs,
> > > Archivist, Literary Archives (English-language)
> > > Library and Archives Canada
> > > WS 598, 550 Blvd de la Cité
> > > Gatineau, QC, K1A 0N4
> > >
> > > Tel: (819) 934-8331 Fax: (819) 934-8333
> > > e-mail: catherine.hobbs at lac-bac.gc.ca
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > >
> > > From: SYLVIA LASSAM [mailto:sylvialassam at rogers.com]
> > > Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 1:56 PM
> > > To: Hobbs Catherine
> > > Subject: Re: [Personal_archives] FW: Re: 'the fragmentary,
> > > shifting ice floe'
> > >
> > >
> > > Good afternoon,
> > >
> > > One of two things have occured to me while reading the comments
> > > from Catherine and Maryanne. Not only is our documentation
> > > fragmentary, but our sense of a letter-writer's persona is
> > > reflective of a very particular place and time, of which we may
> > > know nothing. The moment a specific letter was written is
> > > dependant on so many things, including the writer's mood, the
> > > swirl of activity surrounding them (or not), important events they
> > > may assume their reader is aware of... There's a real danger, I
> > > think, that archivists and researchers may extrapolate too much,
> > > and make too many assumptions, from any one surviving letter.
> > >
> > > On a practical note, as a way to help researchers contextualize
> > > the document, we might want to consider a description of the
> > > physical object if it throws any light on the contents of the
> > > letter, especially if we can compare it to others. Was it written
> > > in haste, carefully typed on nice stationery, can the envelope
> > > tell us of a temporary re-location? In other words, the physical
> > > presentation may give us clues to the writer's state of mind
> > > and/or frame the recipient's initial reaction.
> > >
> > > I'm enjoying this immensely so far.
> > >
> > > Sylvia Lassam
> > > Archives of Ontario
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message ----
> > > From: Hobbs Catherine <catherine.hobbs at lac-bac.gc.ca>
> > > To: Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
> > > Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 9:03:27 AM
> > > Subject: [Personal_archives] FW: Re: 'the fragmentary, shifting
> > > ice floe'
> > >
> > > Good morning,
> > >
> > > For my part, I agree with du Bois' propositions which you've
> > > outlined and think that this approach is very transferrable to the
> > > archivist. >From this perspective, archivists need to foreground
> > > the facts that the fonds which survives is fragmentary. This
> > > means including details in archival appraisal and description
> > > about the decisions and forces which made the fonds fragmentary in
> > > the first place.
> > >
> > > For my part, I do spend time asking creative writers if there was
> > > a time when they made a decision not to create documents or
> > > decided to destroy documents, or when moving house or moving a job
> > > (or a break in in their car) meant that part of their records were
> > > lost. It seems to me that archivists are understanding of this
> > > when it comes to judging the rarety of what survives but they
> > > don't transfer this part of the story to the researcher through
> > > archival description all that often. I guess there is also the
> > > next layer where part of the story becomes the creator's
> > > relationship to what was lost. Was the fragmenting a decision to
> > > act (such as a bonfire which has never been regretted) or is the
> > > creator mourning the loss of certain documents because they relate
> > > to an earlier self and take on an ideal form? These additional
> > > elements can help us to see the psychology of the documentor and
> > > hence better reveal the fonds.
> > >
> > > Of course, as the ability to "read fragmentarily" suggests, we
> > > need to be clear that there are gaps even when there is no clue to
> > > their context.
> > >
> > > (The Sylvia Plath example reminds me of the novel Swann by Carol
> > > Shields, black comedy where the scholars are ransacking the
> > > fragmentary archives of a murdered (in fact dismembered) poet
> > > whose ouevre was naive or possibly completely talentless--sorry,
> > > the literary references keep coming).
> > >
> > > Other thoughts on the practical aspects of this or reflections on
> > > particular archival fonds?
> > >
> > > Catherine
> > >
> > > Catherine Hobbs,
> > > Archivist, Literary Archives (English-language)
> > > Library and Archives Canada
> > > WS 598, 550 Blvd de la Cité
> > > Gatineau, QC, K1A 0N4
> > >
> > > Tel: (819) 934-8331 Fax: (819) 934-8333
> > > e-mail: catherine.hobbs at lac-bac.gc.ca
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: personal_archives-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
> > > [mailto:personal_archives-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of
> > > Maryanne Dever
> > > Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 7:16 PM
> > > To: Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
> > > Subject: [Personal_archives] Re: 'the fragmentary, shifting ice floe'
> > >
> > > Hi everyone,
> > >
> > > Hello. Thanks for the opportunity to participate in this. I'm
> > > really looking forward to the discussion over the week.
> > >
> > > So, how to approach 'the fragmentary, shifting ice floe'? And how
> > > to live with ambiguity?
> > >
> > > On this question I've been really intrigued by the work of
> > > classics scholar, Page duBois, which I've found quite productive
> > > when pondering this. I thinking here of her book 'Sappho is
> > > Burning' (University of Chicago Press, 1995). While those of us
> > > who work on contemporary literary subjects and their personal
> > > papers might be able to avoid confronting the question of the
> > > fragmentary nature of the material we find in the archives, as a
> > > classical scholar working with the fragments of ancient texts
> > > (such as surviving portions of Sappho's lyric poems), duBois has
> > > no choice but to address the question pretty much head-on. This is
> > > why I find her work so refreshing.
> > >
> > > She writes of how our attention to the artefacts of the past is
> > > inevitably shaped by a desire that is precisely 'a longing for
> > > what we cannot have' (p.33). DuBois is more than familiar with
> > > the epistemological challenges routinely thrown up by contending
> > > with 'broken things', those 'bits of the past assembled for our
> > > gaze through random events and destruction and discovery' (p. 31).
> > > (This is a little bit like what Jacqueline Rose talks about in her
> > > book 'The Haunting of Sylvia Plath' where -- drawing on
> > > psychoanalytic frameworks -- she characterizes Plath's archive in
> > > particular - as the 'corps morcele' or body-in-bits-and-pieces --
> > > as opposed to the fantasy of corporeal unity. Rose is interested,
> > > in the same way as DuBois I think, in how to contend with an
> > > archive that is 'scattered and broken'.)
> > >
> > > du Bois highlights the extent to which researchers involved in
> > > various kinds of archival work consciously and unconsciously
> > > understand themselves as agents of recovery and reconstitution,
> > > despite the impossibility of such projects in the face of 'what is
> > > in fact irrevocably lost'. She contends that we ought to examine
> > > more closely our insistent drive to 'mend' the past, to make it
> > > 'whole' in the face of its fragmented and dismembered material
> > > legacy. DuBois suggests that what we need to do is to hold that
> > > 'dream of wholeness' in tension with our recognition of what is
> > > irretrievable.
> > >
> > > What I take from duBois is that the skill we have to learn is to
> > > how to 'read fragmentarily'. I think this links to the question
> > > of 'ambiguity' or perhaps to 'contingency'. As literary/historical
> > > researchers we have to realize that when we build a narrative from
> > > the assembled fragments in an archive, for all that we have
> > > invested in the idea of ourselves as playing a restorative role,
> > > we are essentially putting pieces together to tell our stories,
> > > not accessing some fully-formed story that lies there waiting for
> > > us. In short, the fragments gain their evidentiary status - their
> > > seeming significance and seeming coherence - primarily from the
> > > ways in which they are incorporated into our stories. The
> > > challenge as I see it is how to make that contingent element
> > > manifest in what I write.
> > >
> > > I'll start with that for now and come back to those other elements
> > > (the role of chance and the self-censorship and role playing of
> > > the creator question) next.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Maryanne
> > >
> > > --
> > > Assoc. Prof. Maryanne Dever
> > > Centre for Women's Studies and Gender Research, Monash University,
> > > Melbourne President, Australian Women's and Gender Studies
> > > Association (AWGSA)
> > >
> > > Visiting Scholar, McGill Center for Research and Teaching on Women
> > > (MCRTW), Apr-Jun 2008
> > >
> > > Bank of Montreal Visiting Scholar in Women's Studies University of
> > > Ottawa, Jan-Mar 2008
> > >
> > > Mailing Address:
> > > Centre for Women's Studies & Gender Research School of Political &
> > > Social Inquiry Faculty of Arts Monash University Victoria 3800
> > > AUSTRALIA
> > > Tel. 61 3 99053259
> > > Fax. 61 3 99052410
> > > http://arts.monash.edu.au/womens-studies/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: Hobbs Catherine <catherine.hobbs at lac-bac.gc.ca>
> > > Date: Monday, April 21, 2008 10:55 pm
> > > Subject: [Personal_archives] Welcome to our SISPA discussion
> > > To: Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
> > >
> > > > Good morning,
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I am very pleased to welcome Maryanne Dever (of Monash
> > > University) to
> > > > the personal archives listserv. Today is the beginning of a
> > > weeklong
> > > > open discussion of issues arising from our reading of her
> > > articles. I
> > > > hope many questions and examples from our own work have come to
> > > mind
> > > > and
> > > > that these can be bandied about this week. (Just a reminder to
> > > > participants to send replies and questions to the entire list
> > > and not
> > > > just the last speaker).
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > So to begin the discussion...
> > > > Maryanne, it's wonderful to have you with us. Thank you for
> > > agreeing
> > > > to participate. I was a real pleasure to reread your articles
> > > in
> > > > preparation for this, particularly because you have such a way
> > > of
> > > > enticing the reader with vivid examples in combination with
> > > > well-informed interpretation and criticism of existing assumptions
> > > how
> > > > we approach archives.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > One of the most important themes arising in both articles, and a
> > > good
> > > > place to start I think, is the idea of the "fissured archive"
> > > that is
> > > > that the archival fonds which is brought into the archives is
> > > (as you
> > > > put it) like a fishnet... threads "held taut over pockets of
> > > > nothingness". That the personal life is always, inevitably more
> > > than
> > > > the sum of the remains and inevitably ineffable.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > As Carol Shields put it in her novel Small Ceremonies, "So much
> > > of a
> > > > man's life is lived inside his own head, that it is impossible
> > > to
> > > > encompass a personality. There is never enough
> > > material.
> > > > Sometimes I read in the newspaper that some university or
> > > library has
> > > > bought hundreds and hundreds of boxes of letters and papers
> > > connected
> > > > with some famous deceased person, and I know every time that it's
> > > > nevergoing to be enough, its hopeless, so why even try?"
> > > > (Couldn't resist one of my favourite quotes!)
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > There are other aspects which you discuss to show how this
> > > fissured
> > > > archives is further complicated such as the role of chance and
> > > the
> > > > self-censorship and role playing of the creator.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > So how do you think that you as a scholar interpreting archives
> > > and we
> > > > as archivists should approach this fragmentary, shifting ice floe?
> > > > I
> > > > wonder if you could comment further on how to 'live with
> > > ambiguity' ?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Catherine
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > (SISPA Chair)
> > > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Personal_archives mailing list
> > > Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
> > > http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/personal_archives
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Personal_archives mailing list
> > Personal_archives at mailman.yale.edu
> > http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/personal_archives
> >
> >
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