En mal d'archive: Postmodernist Theory and Recordkeeping

Abstract

'Postmodernist' theories and philosophies have given a significant impetus to extensive rethinking of the role of records and recordkeepers; the power and place of archives and records within a wider societal framework; and the relationship between memory, the past, and identity. This article examines the core propositions and perspectives of records theorists who have adopted postmodernist standpoints or been influenced in their thought and practice by postmodernism. It offers a critique of certain aspects of postmodernist thought in the context of recordkeeping, focusing on the intellectual claims made for postmodernism, the use of the past, and the tensions between ethics and a relativist conceptual framework. The article concludes that while postmodernist theory can be contested on many points, its true value lies in its relentless questioning, which cannot honestly be dismissed.