Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace
Explorations in Canadian Women's Archives
Published on 30. June 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
348 pages
978-1-77112-328-0 (ISBN)
Description
Women's letters and memoirs were until recently considered to have little historical significance. Many of these materials have disappeared or remain unarchived, often dismissed as ephemera and relegated to basements, attics, closets, and, increasingly, cyberspace rather than public institutions. This collection showcases the range of critical debates that animate thinking about women's archives in Canada. The essays in Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace consider a series of central questions: What are the challenges that affect archival work about women in Canada today? What are some of the ethical dilemmas that arise over the course of archival research? How do researchers read and make sense of the materials available to them? How does one approach the shifting, unstable forms of new technologies? What principles inform the decisions not only to research the lives of women but to create archival deposits? The contributors focus on how a supple research process might allow for greater engagement with unique archival forms and critical absences in narratives of past and present.
From questions of acquisition, deposition, and preservation to challenges related to the interpretation of material, the contributors track at various stages how fonds are created (or sidestepped) in response to national and other imperatives and to feminist commitments; how archival material is organized, restricted, accessed, and interpreted; how alternative and immediate archives might be conceived and approached; and how exchanges might be read when there are peculiar lacunae - missing or fragmented documents, or gaps in communication - that then require imaginative leaps on the part of the researcher.
From questions of acquisition, deposition, and preservation to challenges related to the interpretation of material, the contributors track at various stages how fonds are created (or sidestepped) in response to national and other imperatives and to feminist commitments; how archival material is organized, restricted, accessed, and interpreted; how alternative and immediate archives might be conceived and approached; and how exchanges might be read when there are peculiar lacunae - missing or fragmented documents, or gaps in communication - that then require imaginative leaps on the part of the researcher.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
Images
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77112-328-0 (9781771123280)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Linda Morra is a full professor at Bishop's University. She was the Craig Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies (2016-2017) at University College Dublin and a visiting scholar at Berkeley, University of California (2016). Her book Unarrested Archives (2014) was a finalist for the Gabrielle Roy Prize.
Jessica Schagerl's research focuses on Canadian studies, drawing heavily on archival material; she is also invested in questions of professional concern, including mentoring and the futures of arts and humanities. She is the alumni and development officer for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Western Ontario.
Jessica Schagerl's research focuses on Canadian studies, drawing heavily on archival material; she is also invested in questions of professional concern, including mentoring and the futures of arts and humanities. She is the alumni and development officer for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Western Ontario.
Content
Basements and Attics, Closets and Cyberspace: Explorations in Women's Archives, edited by Linda M. Morra and Jessica Schagerl
Introduction: No Archive is Neutral Linda M. Morra and Jessica Schagerl
I. Reorientations
Of Mini-Ships and Archives Daphne Marlatt
Finding Indian Maidens on eBay: Tales of the Alternative Archive (and More Tales of White Commodity Culture) Cecily Devereux
""Faster Than a Speeding Thought"": Lemon Hound's Archive Unleashed Karis Shearer and Jessica Schagerl
""I remember""I was wearing leather pants"": Archiving the Repertoire of Feminist Cabaret in Canada T.L. Cowan
""In the hope of making a connection"": (Re)Reading Archival Bodies, Responses, and Love in Marian Engel's Bear and Alice Munro's ""Meneseteung"" Catherine Bates
An Archive of Complicity: Ethically (Re)Reading the Documentaries of Nelofer Pazira Hannah McGregor
Psyche and Her Helpers, under Cloud Cover Penn Kemp
II. Restrictions
Archival Matters Sally Clark
Keeping the Archive Door Open: Writing about Florence Carlyle Susan Butlin
The Oral, the Archive, and Ethics: Canadian Women Writers Telling It Andrea Beverley
Halted by the Archive: The Impact of Excessive Archival Restrictions on Scholars Ruth Panofsky and Michael Moir
Personal Ethics: Being an Archivist of Writers Catherine Hobbs
Invisibility Exhibit: The Limits of Library and Archives Canada's ""Multicultural Mandate"" Karina Vernon
III. Responsibilities
Rat in the Box: Thoughts on Archiving My Stuff Susan McMaster
Letters to the Woman's Page Editor: Francis Marion Beynon's ""The Country Homemakers"" and a Public Culture for Women Katja Thieme
Archival Adventures with L.M. Montgomery; or, ""As Long as the Leaves Hold Together"" Vanessa Brown and Benjamin Lefebvre
The Quality of the Carpet: A Consideration of Anecdotes in Researching Women's Lives Linda M. Morra
""I want my story told"": The Sheila Watson Archive, the Reader, and the Search for Voice Paul Tiessen
""You can do with all this rambling whatever you want"": Scrutinizing Ethics in the Alzheimer's Archives Kathleen Venema
Locking Up Letters Julia Creet
Afterword Janice Fiamengo
Contributors
Index
Introduction: No Archive is Neutral Linda M. Morra and Jessica Schagerl
I. Reorientations
Of Mini-Ships and Archives Daphne Marlatt
Finding Indian Maidens on eBay: Tales of the Alternative Archive (and More Tales of White Commodity Culture) Cecily Devereux
""Faster Than a Speeding Thought"": Lemon Hound's Archive Unleashed Karis Shearer and Jessica Schagerl
""I remember""I was wearing leather pants"": Archiving the Repertoire of Feminist Cabaret in Canada T.L. Cowan
""In the hope of making a connection"": (Re)Reading Archival Bodies, Responses, and Love in Marian Engel's Bear and Alice Munro's ""Meneseteung"" Catherine Bates
An Archive of Complicity: Ethically (Re)Reading the Documentaries of Nelofer Pazira Hannah McGregor
Psyche and Her Helpers, under Cloud Cover Penn Kemp
II. Restrictions
Archival Matters Sally Clark
Keeping the Archive Door Open: Writing about Florence Carlyle Susan Butlin
The Oral, the Archive, and Ethics: Canadian Women Writers Telling It Andrea Beverley
Halted by the Archive: The Impact of Excessive Archival Restrictions on Scholars Ruth Panofsky and Michael Moir
Personal Ethics: Being an Archivist of Writers Catherine Hobbs
Invisibility Exhibit: The Limits of Library and Archives Canada's ""Multicultural Mandate"" Karina Vernon
III. Responsibilities
Rat in the Box: Thoughts on Archiving My Stuff Susan McMaster
Letters to the Woman's Page Editor: Francis Marion Beynon's ""The Country Homemakers"" and a Public Culture for Women Katja Thieme
Archival Adventures with L.M. Montgomery; or, ""As Long as the Leaves Hold Together"" Vanessa Brown and Benjamin Lefebvre
The Quality of the Carpet: A Consideration of Anecdotes in Researching Women's Lives Linda M. Morra
""I want my story told"": The Sheila Watson Archive, the Reader, and the Search for Voice Paul Tiessen
""You can do with all this rambling whatever you want"": Scrutinizing Ethics in the Alzheimer's Archives Kathleen Venema
Locking Up Letters Julia Creet
Afterword Janice Fiamengo
Contributors
Index