Being in the archive: affect and scholarly distance. Issue 1 (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brennan, Bernadette
• Is Part Of: Archives and manuscripts. Volume 46:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 17
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: Biography -- living writer -- affect -- empathy -- Helen Garner; Archives -- Periodicals; Archives -- Australia -- Periodicals; Public records -- Management -- Periodicals; Public records -- Australia -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 025
• DOI: 10.1080/01576895.2018.1425629
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0157-6895

Abstract

Abstract: Working in the archives of living writers provides exciting possibilities for extended interpersonal research as well as ethical challenges. This article explores the author's experience of working in Helen Garner's restricted archives and negotiating the demands of scholarly objectivity with an increasingly felt empathic engagement. The author traces a chronological path through the archives relating to Garner's three substantial works of non-fiction: The First Stone (1995), Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004) and This House of Grief (2014). She draws attention to some of the ways in which distance and objectivity can be influenced not only by contact with a living writer but also by the space in which the archive is encountered. With a deliberate focus on the lived experience of researching, rather than a scholarly examination of archival theory, the author offers a case study of how the interaction of archives and living subject can shape research and publication.