The except I read from this book is arguing that archival impulse- on saving texts that we didn’t know needed to be saved- is the invisible Hallmark of 20th century African American literary practice. Seemingly, that the underlying notion of archiving is saying that these texts have another life and/or meaning. I found this argument to be interesting, that archiving is bringing another life and meanings to these texts. As before this class I knew slim to no information about archiving, I have grown a deeper understanding and respect for it. Its not only preserving texts, but also giving them new interpretations and meanings- basically what we did for out midterm projects. But going back to the text… when its discussing one of the first mainstream African American authors- Richard Wright- it discussed how popular his work was but also how archival brought some of it back to life. “Black Boy” for example, restored Wrights underappreciated novel that was called “The Outsider.” Archival brought new meaning the the first text, as well as giving the second the proper recognition that it deserved. So not only is archiving important to preserve the history of books, its also important when thinking about new interpretations and meanings of books- ones that might not have been made before. Parts of the book were taken out or lost in its original form, while archiving it was able to create new meaning and restored parts that were lost. Basically, we had failed to understand the book the first time, but the second time it was restored to what it was supposed to be the entire time. It came out of the shadows.

I also found the “progression of actions-lifestyle method” to be quite interesting when thinking about the text. This cycle includes creation-> capture-> storage and maintenance-> use-> disposal. When thinking in terms of archival this cycle is useful, and it made it easier for me to visualize its process. The idea of an archive being the reason that something truly existed, is fascinating. Archives can bring relevance, historical importance, or help create new interpretations about books, paper, writing, history, and more. I think the idea of archives intrigues me so much because of this, and when thinking about where we might be/not be because of the use of archives. Not only this, but specifically when thinking about African American archives in this way too. “The forensic imagination that informs much of contemporary African American scholarship (re)establishes the authority of collective provenance, conjuring kinship, at its best, allows contemporary black life to imaginatively reclaim irretrievable losses” (pg. 10). I found this quote summed up what stood out to be most in this reading. Archiving has been a massive what that African American works have been (re)established and imagined over time, especially during the New Negro movement and the Black Arts Movement. This reading was really interesting, as I learned more about archiving and also about how it related specifically to African American arts.