COML573 - Inside the Archive

Status
O
Activity
SEM
Section number integer
401
Title (text only)
Inside the Archive
Term
2022A
Subject area
COML
Section number only
401
Section ID
COML573401
Course number integer
573
Registration notes
Undergraduates Need Permission
All Readings and Lectures in English
Meeting times
T 01:45 PM-04:45 PM
Meeting location
VANP 627
Level
graduate
Instructors
Liliane Weissberg
Description
What is an archive, and what is its history? What makes an archival collection special, and how can we work with it? In this course, we will discuss work essays that focus on the idea and concept of the archive by Jacques Derrida, Michel de Certeau, Benjamin Buchloh, Cornelia Vismann, and others. We will consider the difference between public and private archives, archives dedicated to specific disciplines, persons, or events, and consider the relationship to museums and memorials. Further questions will involve questions of property and ownership as well as the access to material, and finally the archive's upkeep, expansion, or reduction. While the first part of the course will focus on readings about archives, we will invite curators, and visit archives (either in person or per zoom) in the second part of the course. At Penn, we will consider four archives: (1) the Louis Kahn archive of architecture at Furness, (2) the Lorraine Beitler Collection of material relating to the Dreyfus affair, (3) the Schoenberg collection of medieval manuscripts and its digitalization, and (4) the University archives. Outside Penn, we will study the following archives and their history: (1) Leo Baeck Institute for the study of German Jewry in New York, (2) the Sigmund Freud archive at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., (3) the German Literary Archive and the Literturmuseum der Moderne in Marbach, Germany, and (4) the archives of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
Course number only
573
Cross listings
GRMN577401, ENGL671401, JWST577401, ARTH569401
Use local description
No