Techniques of Forgetting? Hypo-Amnesic History and the An-Archive

The role of the archive in the elevation of political authority over cultural tradition is mostly unaddressed in contemporary anarchist theory, which focuses on oppression, cultural production and political resistance. However, having been a theme of anarchist writings since Elisée Reclus (1830-1905), the politico-archival dominance of the singular intimacy of cultural memory should again come to the fore. Given that Lewis Call, Todd May and Saul Newman have strenuously explored “post-anarchism” at the confluence of classical anarchism and contemporary poststructuralism, there is reason to believe that this is now a conceptual possibility. It is at this nexus that the question of the an-archic aspect of archival, lived and “counter” memories can be addressed in a way that does not fall prey to obsolete essentialist and humanist requirements common in the current output on the “ethics” and “politics” of remembrance—the “duty” and “right” to remember (or forget), forgiving and granting amnesty, honoring by remembering, etc.2 In fact, the “revolt culture” over whose ruins Julia Kristeva laments is one in which the disruptive economy of memory and forgetting could play a vital role in the emergence of new figures and modalities of temporality—an emergence already precluded by the “ethics” or “politics” of remembrance (Kristeva 2000: 8-9, 28-29).