Enmanuel Martinez, 5th Year Graduate Student
Comparative Literature, Rutgers University
195 College Avenue
Potluck - 5:30pm
Colloquium - 6:30pm

Enmanuel Martinez will be presenting 'Of Cassette Tape 'Letters' and Basement Refrigerators: Housing the Archive of the Caribbean "Diaspora".

In Silencing the Past, Michelle-Rolph Trouillot attests to the "unthinkable history" of the Haitian Revolution, reminding readers that, "In history, power begins at the source" (29). Building from Trouillot's analysis of the role ofarchival power in the making and recording of colonial (Francophone) Caribbean history, my colloquium presentation turns to examine the crossing of power and the historical record by means of the archive in the context of the post 1970 Francophone and Hispanic Caribbean and their diasporas.  Directing this analysis is Enmanuel's concern for the source of the source, which is to say the place of the archives of the Caribbean diaspora. By interrogating the place of the diasporic archive, he asks two derivative questions: where do we physically locate the archive; but also what social, cultural or political roles does the archive occupy for the transnational communities of the Caribbean diaspora?

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