Silences in the Archive
At first, I wasn’t sure what Dr. Hartman was referring to in the article “Venus in Two Acts,” but now I understand what she means by “archival silence” and why it matters when thinking about history. There are gaps in history, like what happened Venus, because people didn’t bother to write it down: and yet, we so desperately want to study the archives that are simply not recorded — the silences.
A question
History exists in only what we know to have happened, so the romanticization of events that have no record is reaching beyond the scope of history. And yet, as Dr. Hartman brings up in her article, we, as humans, want to write stories that are impossible to tell due to the limits of what the archive contains. And so the question of “is it possible to exceed or negotiate the constitutive limits of the archive?” is brought up, which I have a hard time answering because I have conflicting beliefs about it (Hartman, 11).
Throwback song of the week
my answer
As a theatrical artist, I say yes: it is possible to negotiate the limits of the archive and fill in the silence. There are people who have had have had their stories taken away from them and the world, stripped down to nothing more than a name, so the least we can do to honor their memory is fill in the silence. But as a historian, I’m compelled to say that you simply cannot exceed the limits of the archive because the limits are exactly what they are — limits. As badly as we may want to piece together a narrative to honor the memory of Venus, the silence of the archives prevents that, and as historians, writing narratives that are nothing more than narratives fueled by our own desire to have a story invalidates our craft.
Stepping outside the archive, or trying to fill in the silence with a well-crafted narrative, delves into the realm of historical fiction. That historical status of the event is jeopardized “by playing with and rearranging the basic elements of the story, by representing the sequence of events in divergent stories and from contested points of view” (Hartman, 11). We cannot craft narratives that aren’t there and call it history.
how this relates to my research
I’m researching “Temple Town,” which is the history of the effects of Temple’s expansion into and gentrification of North Philly over the past 70-ish years, and how this isn’t an isolated incident in one part of one city. A lot of white-owned newspapers, especially from farther back in history will likely paint gentrification as a positive and not consider the negative effects on the local permanent residents (the majority of whom are black). The stories of local residents who were pushed out may be harder to find the farther back in history I go, and I have to be careful not to craft a narrative because of the way I feel, as I can’t fill in archival silence with my own narratives. As I dive deeper into research, I’ll likely have to contend with these silences in the archive.
Thanks for reading my blog post, I hope you enjoyed it!