The Literary Memory: Archive in Times of Databases

Abstract

Digital contemporaneity is characterized by the acceleration of time and the obsolescence of techniques and technologies (Santos, 2008; Couchot, 1997). It raises questions about the archive’s viability in a culture that has made the database its privileged cultural metaphor (Manovich, 2005). This article proposes to reflect on themes concerning the role and characterization of the archive, in this context, with regard to the preservation of digital literature and the creation and institutionalization of the Brazilian digital literary repertoire. For this, it mobilizes Derrida’s (2001) reflections on the archive, putting them in dialogue with Manovich’s (2005) propositions about the database and, finally, articulates them with the systemic approach of literature, carried out by Even-Zohar (2017). The theoretical-critical discussion undertaken here is supported by the archival and preservation activities developed by the Brazilian Digital Literature Observatory (CNPq), which made the creation of the Atlas of Brazilian Digital Literature possible.