Liberating the Phantom Elephant: The Digitization of Oral Archives

Abstract

The present research project is based on empirical work carried out by Caroline Mall-Dibiasy and the theoretical perspectives offered by some of the growing number of scholars interested in re-reading history through the re-reading of archives and, indeed, their reinvention, foremost among them Ranajit Guha, Jacques Derrida, Ann Laura Stoler and most especially Penelope Papillias, in addition to the personal documentary encounters made by the co-author, Roger Heacock. In theory, the field is immense. In practice, the response of the present guardians of the types of documents sought demonstrates how far the public consciousness of Palestinian institutions, families and individuals has yet to move before any set of documents can transcend colonial shackles in which materials are hidden or doctored, for or against the colonizers, and in which each holder sees her- or himself as a threatened fighter surrounded by enemies. Such defensiveness and secrecy may have had its justifications in the past. The work undertaken in the context of this project within IALIIS's FMRU is intended as a first practical but also conceptual step towards liberating, saving and indeed, inventing the archive in Palestine.