Writing from the Archives/In the Subjunctive Mood

Memory, history, and trace haunt the present, perception, and the cultural contexts in which we live. When we turn to the archival record, we note its focus on the powerful, and its critical exclusion of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and LGTBQ people, people with disabilities, and “wild” women. A growing number of writers employ new means to open the lens to render the present more clearly through counter-narrative, critical fabulation, and reparative technique. We will read and write in this vein toward a new poetics of archive and study methods that give attention to the “unrecorded” incident, emotion, image, and music.