Friday, March 3, 2017

Steedman, Davy, and Kirsch: Cultural Memory and the "Feminist" Archive

Dear Folks,

I promised I would bring two things back into our discussion:
  • Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's dohistory.org project
  • Carolyn Steedman's "What a Rag Rug Means."

Promises kept.

For Tuesday, please read Davy's "Cultural Memory and the Lesbian Archive" and reread Steedman's chapter 6 if you need more time with it. (Please also bring back Kirsch's "Feminist Research," as we will likely refer to the latter part of her chapter.) In advance of Tuesday's class, for anyone who desires a sneak preview, I offer some links and questions that may guide our discussion:

1. What do you make of the following exhibits? How would a feminist analysis of one of them as an "official" exhibit differ from a feminist analysis of one of them as a "personal" exhibit?
2. How do you respond to historical atrocity, and how do you think Davy or Steedman might urge you to respond? (Afua Cooper's description of Angelique's torture was one example of an explicit atrocity, while Martha Ballard's accounting of Rebecca Foster's uncharged rape was an example of an implicit atrocity. Exhibits reflecting on medical and sartorial research into 19th-century corsetry sometimes elicit that same response.)

3. What are some advantages of that kind of response for developing a feminist ethic of archival research? What are some disadvantages of that kind of response for developing a feminist ethic of archival research?

4. While Kirsch's essay relies on the contemporary notion of "gender" as a social and critical construct, in which of the other two readings (Davy's essay or Steedman's chapter) do you think gender gets discussed as a position from which someone can act?

5. How does one use the archives to uncover certain hegemonies of power? To bury certain hegemonies of power? To develop an awareness of how to alter one's own hegemonic way of thinking?

Looking forward to our discussion!
-Dr. Graban


Posted by at