Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 55 No. 1, 2012.
Ostalo
Arranging the Self : Literary and Archival Perspectives on Writers’ Archives
Jennifer Douglas
; Sveučilište u Torontu
Heather MacNeill
; Sveučilište u Torontu
Sažetak
This article reports on a small exploratory research project undertaken by the authors on the archives of three well-known Canadian writers - L. M. Montgomery, Marian Engel, and Alice Munro - for the purpose of assessing whether and to what extent we can know writers - their character and intentions − through their archives. The three writers' archives were examined through two interpretive frameworks: the archival principles of arrangement and the literature on life writing. The former included the analysis of three basic assumptions: first, that a writer's records have the potential to reveal the character and intentions of the writer herself; second, that such potential may be realized through the reconstruction of the records' original order; and third, that it is possible for archivists to represent a writer's records without imposing their own intentions on that representation. The arrangement and processing of the three writers’ archives is examined regarding these assumptions. The latter focuses on the multiple ''I''s involved in life writing acts, concluding that, while a diary or a letter might supply readers with autobiographical details, it does not, and cannot, provide them with perfect access to the '''real' or historical I" behind the "narrating" and "narrated" "I"s. The diary of L. M. Montgomery, as well as personal papers of the other two writers, is used as an example of that fact. The authors conclude that it is very difficult for an archivist to capture the nature of the literary fonds from the inside, reflecting the author’s thinking space, due to the fact a writer’s archive is a deeply ambiguous one. The writer is continually performing different versions of the self, and various other selves − friends, colleagues, and archivists among others − participate in shaping the meaning of the archive. Therefore, a writer’s archive should be looked upon as a social and collaborative text rather than a purely psychological one. This enables us to see it as an on-going conversation between the writer and his/her various selves, between the writer and other interested parties who contribute to the archive, between the writer and the archivist who arranges her papers, and between the writer and each user who encounters her through those papers.
Ključne riječi
records; L. M. Montgomery; Marian Engel; Alice Munro; archival principles; life writing; respect for original order; creator; fonds; correspondence; letters; archivist; papers; collection; writer; diary; self
Hrčak ID:
103119
URI
Datum izdavanja:
11.12.2012.
Posjeta: 1.434 *