I have shortened Thursday's excerpts from Elizabeth McHenry's Forgotten Readers so that we can also read excerpts from Afua Cooper's The Hanging of Angelique (both in our Canvas CL). I seriously hope you enjoy both these projects. McHenry's is the longer of our excerpts in which she does some theory-building about "invisible readership" by examining the activities of African-American literary societies in the 19th century. Cooper's is the shorter of our excerpts in which she performs postcolonial critique by recovering and retelling the execution of Angelique, a Portuguese slave who was charged for burning her mistress's home in Montreal in 1734.
While these pieces may seem far removed from each other and from the context of our archival wanderings, they make great centerpieces for our case study of "text as archive," for they act as complete, coherent histories of their own and they each rely on extensive historical documents. They embody archives, so to speak.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you read, and these questions may guide our discussion next class:
- Compare their stories. What or whose other narratives do they take up in order write the ones they tell? Do they rely on lore? Myth? Conjecture? Histories of people, places, or things?
- What are some of McHenry's arguments about why the "black reader" is forgotten? What are some of Cooper's arguments about why Angelique should not be forgotten?
- Which one are you more or less inclined to believe and why?
- Compare their sources (I have included endnotes and/or citation lists). Why might they be so different? How or to whom do those differences matter?
- What kind of archives did each one consult? How can you tell? Why might they be so different?
- Are you convinced by their attempts at historical revisionism? What risks and rewards do you think each of them might have experienced in un-silencing their chosen subjects?
Enjoy! I might bring in some other examples of "text as archive" on Thursday,
-Dr. Graban
