Precarious Archives, Precarious Voices.
Expanding Jewish Narratives from the Margins
Online
“Like belongings washed upon the seashore, testimonial objects of survivors – albums, collages, sketches, difficult to decipher manuscripts – are being collected and, because of the precariousness inherent in their message and authenticity, they are passed from one to another.” Mona Körte, Flaschenpost. Vom “Eigenleben” jüdischer Erinnerungsarchive
Recent years have seen ground-breaking archival survey projects taking place across Europe, in a range of public and private archives, revealing a wealth of documents related to Jewish history and the Shoah which remained hidden or inaccessible until now. Simultaneously, scholarly definitions of archives are expanding, and methodologies used for approaching archival material are complementing this expansion. The archival turn in contemporary art, the opening of archives in Eastern Europe, the third generation’s ongoing quest to interpret fragments of familial papers, and the new digital availability of smaller archival collections suggest that our access to historical material and sources has been democratised. Expanding definitions of source material have animated researchers to implement new methodologies for reanalysing old narratives or examining narratives marginalised until now. What overlooked stories are being found in newly accessible archives and how can they be framed and presented? How can new sources be approached and what issues or hurdles arise in working with “new” material? To what extent must the history of the archival material itself be incorporated into an analysis of the same? This workshop seeks to make visible voices which have been unheard until now and discuss new methodological lenses demanded by this material. A particular emphasis is put on papers exploring gender dimensions in their work and interdisciplinary approaches.
