The Performativity of the Archive from a Semiotic Perspective

Abstract

The paper proposes a Peircean semiotics approach to the Archives Studies based on the notion of performativity. In this context, the study of discourses shifts from the representational verification to their effectiveness; the question is no longer about what they represent, but about what discourses are capable of producing in a time and a community. The objective of the paper is to challenge the cultural practice of archiving with these notions. To do this, a semiotic methodology is used to allow the investigation of the ways in which the archives make sense, as well as the aspects that are involved in that production of meaning. Three major interrelated fields of research will thus be defined: the archive as construction of a memory; the archive as the storage and constitution of objects and documents; the archive as the systematization of the archive material.