Mutant archives: notes on the historicity of documents and filing methods

Abstract

This paper aims to think about archives that are some distance from the immediate problems posed by documents from the “recent past.” It tries to show how historians relate to archives through three examples linked to the production, uses and changing meanings of documents dealing with intimacy and private life in different periods. Finally, it refers to some definitions of archives that emphasize the historicity of collecting and accessing material traces of the past. The general framework of the presentation is a certain contemporary anxiety regarding the usefulness and stability of archives as cultural constructions that link past, present and future.