Narrating the Collective: Memory, Power, and Archival Space

Although many archivists have long thought that postmodernism has little to do with archives and the work of archivists, an examination of archival theory and practice through the postmodern lens can enhance the archival discourse. The view of an archive as a repository of memory particularly lends itself to evaluation through a postmodern point of view. As records of the past, archives are sites where memory, power and narrative threads are navigated. In contrast to many conceptualizations of memory, this paper argues that memory is a contingent process, one that is firmly rooted in the present. Archives as sites of memory production permit and silence various narrative strands in the collective social fabric, and archivists must recognize their role in shaping the archival record. This essay therefore seeks to analyze the current literature on archives and its relation to memory, power and narrative, and to explore the complexity and multiplicity of layers that constitute archives and the work of archivists. The remainder of the essay is divided into thematic subsections; it is important to note, however, that each of these broad themes is inextricably entwined with the others