Feeling narrative in the archive: the question of serendipity

Abstract

Abstract:In this article I consider serendipity and chance in engaging with narratives in the archive. Why is it I ask that serendipity has become a sine qua non of archival research? Without downplaying the rarity and preciousness of chance, my argument is that we should not conflate the gift of the chance with the dim area of perceptive experience, which may or may not be conscious. In positing this argument I draw on Whitehead's philosophy: more particularly I consider the notion of prehensions in exploring a particular storyline from my own archival research with the papers of Jeanne Bouvier, a French trade unionist in the garment industry. In juxtaposing serendipity with the Whiteheadian lens of imaginative freedom, I chart storylines in the archive on a matrix of rhythmical vibrations and finally I consider narrative work through the synthetic activity of symbolic reference.

Doing new materialisms: an interview with Maria Tamboukou

“…Taking into account that our speakers here are key figures in what seems to configure methodological strategies of new materialism. I would like them to explain to us how genealogies (van der Tuin, 2015) and narrative entanglements (Tamboukou, 2016;2018) contribute to the reconfiguration of "material-discursive" practices of the world, on the one hand. And, on the other, taking into account that methodologies can be considered intra-actively working with ontologies and epistemologies in how practices matter, how these methodologies reconfigure a "new materialist" conceptualization on their own.…”

“…And, on the other, taking into account that methodologies can be considered intra-actively working with ontologies and epistemologies in how practices matter, how these methodologies reconfigure a "new materialist" conceptualization on their own. That is to say, how can we practice methodologies engaging with the relation between acting and thinking (Tamboukou, 2016).…”

“…And since you find such narratives in archives, I have also become very interested in what it is that we do when we work in archives. There are therefore two planes of entanglement that I am interested in while working with archives and narratives: a) entanglements of discourses and practices that have left their traces in narratives and b) entanglements of discourses and practices within the archive (seeTamboukou 2016) In thus turning to the part of the question of what was reconfigured through this neomaterialist approach I will offer two examples from my work with 19th century French feminists(Tamboukou 2015b) that respond to the two levels of entanglements I have identified above:Narratives and discourses have been central in writing a feminist genealogy of women working in the garment industry. What has also emerged as a catalytic event is the question of 'how matter matters'(Barad 2007) in the excavation of the conditions of possibility for the seamstress to emerge as a labour activist, a political subject, a writer of history and a creator of culture.…”

Towards an ecology of participation: Process philosophy and co-creation of higher education curricula

“…First, we are interested in reciprocity, emergence and creativity as learning and teaching practices which produce the curriculum not as preformed content but as an ongoing process of co-construction (see above). Second, Whitehead's interest in process encourages him to focus on the 'becomings' of activities via their co-constitutive emergence as 'actual events' (Tamboukou, 2015) and this, for us, encourages a 'micro' focus which hones in on the actual practices through which curriculum co-creation occurs. This is important because (as we show later in our empirical examples) it is in the details of curriculum practices that power shifts, normative questions of value, and ethical questions become apparent.…”

“…Because not everything is decided in advance (as it mostly is in traditional curricula), students and lecturers have a larger capacity to work collaboratively to foster invention, creativity, and risk. Given Tamboukou's (2015: 3) view that Whitehead sees 'creative activity [as] the very essence of each occasion' then it is important that scope for creativity via participation in curriculum co-creation co-exists with the many performative skillsbased and outcomes-focused realities of contemporary higher education. Using 'concern' to conceptualise co-created curriculum as an 'ecology' places much needed emphasis on finding and making curriculum and pedagogic space for students and lecturers to develop organic practices of acting well in-relation.…”