ENG 5049 Fall 2023 Gontarski

This course will explore the supposed neutrality of archives and issues of their conflicted interests between access and concealment. It will feature primary data archival research primarily in the underused, almost unknown Strozier Special Collections material, although research in nearby archives will also be possible, especially for corresponding or overlapping material. Almost untouched are our William S. Burroughs and Grove Press archives, and both are rich in publication potential, the former on issues of texts and textuality, the latter on book history and the politics of censorship (a lively local topic these days).

The theoretical underpinnings of the course lie within the implications of Jorge Luis Borges short stories “The Library of Babel” and “Of Exactitude in Science,” the former about archivists, the latter about mapmakers. Further theoretical underpinnings derive from Derrida’s lecture of 1994, published in diacritics in summer 1995 and as a book version from the University of Chicago as Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. We will further explore the research potential of Jonathan Basil’s web based project, “The Library of Babel” and its book-based outcome, Tar for Mortar: The Library of Babel and the Dream of Totality.