Feverish Souls: Archives, Identity, and Trauma in Fihris and Ḥiṣn Al-Turāb
The archive is used both literally and metaphorically as a manifestation of the ubiquity of power and the authority invested in material archives. To work from the margin and in secrecy is a trait of the subaltern quest of both Wadood the b...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pluto Journals
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Arab Studies Quarterly |
| Online Access: | https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/arabstudquar.42.4.0287 |
| Summary: | The archive is used both literally and metaphorically as a manifestation of the
ubiquity of power and the authority invested in material archives. To work from
the margin and in secrecy is a trait of the subaltern quest of both Wadood the
bookseller and Dr Nameer, as well as the different characters of the De Molina
family. The official history written by the powers that be marginalizes the
other. However, the digging of the archives by the subaltern raises the hope of
an alternative history that saves the traces of the subaltern. The archive
includes physical archives, manuscripts, artefacts, stamps, cassettes, and
photos, as amply shown in Fihris. In Ḥiṣn
al-turāb , the archive has more of a metaphoric than literal
meaning: it is the spectral topos of suppressed desire and
recovered memory. The archive enables the subaltern to speak by digging up and
even making up archives. Both quests are feverish and reflect the trauma that
motivates digging up the past as recovered memory and the desire to keep traces
of the past as tokens of a marginalized identity seeking redress. Archives are
tokens of the past that threaten the integrity of the history written by the
powerful: the hunter. The victims question that history and create nuisance that
offers hope of a more just history that includes the marginalized
subalterns. |
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| ISSN: | 0271-3519 2043-6920 |