Postmodern discourse on identity of an archivist in ‘The American Archivist’

Abstract

This article is an attempt to present one of the most leading discourses in archival literature of the last two decades, which is archivist’s identity and his place within the culture. In his research author focused mainly on articles published in academic journal published by the Society of American Archivists – ‘The American Archivist’. However to explain the phenomenon of this discourse in proper depth author extended his research to the writings of sociology, historiography and anthropology available in French and English literature. Crisis of archivist’s identity, presented in this article, corresponds with the prevailing trend of the time – postmodernism – also seen by American archivists as the main reason for the marginalization of the role of „servant of the altar of history”. Authors of quoted articles not only do not remain indifferent to this negative process, but they offer solutions which could lead to creation of new and improved image of an archivist in postmodern, democratic and information society. Discussed, in this article, are issues regarding public relations, openness and access to archives, their marketing, as well as education functions. Furthermore, article provides insight into the specific way of writing about archive studies on the other continent, that is with greater attention to lightness and wit of style, which keeps the maximum pragmatism. Article ends with a series of questions which author poses to the changing status of archive and archivist. These questions, although will remain unanswered, expose the seemingly dynamic change.