an exploration of cultural texts as repositories of feelings and emotions, which are encoded not only in the content of the texts themselves but in the practices that surround their production and reception. 

This unit explores the archive through its affective layers of meaning-making. We will think about how feeling and emotions get archived, and how the affective gets displayed not only through the archive's content, but also in the ways the archives are made, produced and shared. We will think about the importance of the affective as something that usually gets left out of traditional notions of the archive, and how the technical aspects of a multimedia archive employ soundscapes, images, narrative, etc. in achieving a rich, affective form of knowledge production. 

Readings/Viewings

Ann Cvetkovich with Allyson Mitchell, "A Girl's Journey Into the Well of Forbidden Knowledge"

• The Lesbian Herstory Archives: http://www.lesbianherstoryarchives.org/

Golan Levin, Kamal Nigam, Jonathan Feinberg, The Dumpster

Recommended: Erik Loyer, The Knotted Line, Strange Rain, Public Secrets

Reflections & Discussion Questions