Thurs 28 Aug: I had a really interesting conversation yesterday, prised out of the literal actual archive (Cory) and propelled into sunshine and a discussion with a sparky PhD student from Literature at Rhodes about ‘the archive’ in the theoretical sense and in particular that of the South African writer and academic Guy Butler, regarding which her PhD research is concerned. We talked about many associated things, but in particular that archives and collections are made and re-made, including by researchers as well as their originators and archivists, including also ‘the late reader’ and the myriad of reading positions such folks occupy. The idea of cultural assemblage is highly pertinent and in respect of archival collections such as Butler’s and Schreiner’s, the intertwining of ‘the work of making it’ and ‘the work it does’ was also in the air as we spoke.

And for more on this, please see Liz Stanley, Andrea Salter & Helen Dampier (2013) “The Work of Making and the Work it Does: Cultural Sociology and ‘Bringing-Into-Being’ the Cultural Assemblage of the Olive Schreiner Letters” Cultural Sociology 13, 7: 287-302.

NB. Just don’t mention water and I’m OK, but please keep in mind that thinking freely, and no water or washing facilities, is a difficult relationship to handle. Many people, very many of them South African, manage it with grace and decorum and cleanliness. I’m not one of them, and I’ve quickly given in to mild filth. Yup, still no water, now collecting borehole water in buckets to flush the toilet…

Last updated: 28 August 2014