Topo-grafie archiwum – o genealogii i melancholii

Abstract

The article is an interpretation of contemporary autobiographical essays (Frascati: apoteoza topografii by Ewa Kuryluk, Śmierć w bunkrze. Opowieść o moim ojcu by Martin Pollack, Proszę bardzo by Anda Rottenberg, Rodzinna historia lęku by Agata Tuszyńska). These texts are representative of contemporary archival culture. In this type of autobiographical discourse, based on the search for one’s own beginning, we find all topoi of postmodern archival culture discussed in this paper – the search for identity, the mythology of a historical source, the promise of reaching the beginning of the trauma, the crypt and the inhabitation by other tales. In the archival quests, as I define this type of writing, an important role is given to the material traces of the past and the ‘archive fever’, which I analyze using Derridean concept of hauntology.