| Title | 12. Archival Research Expanded |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Bodily Archives and Embodied Fabulation |
| Contributor | Lisa Skwirblies(author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0469.12 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0469/chapters/10.11647/obp.0469.12 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Lisa Skwirblies |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-10-24 |
| Long abstract | This chapter expands the methods of traditional archival research, from the textual and iconographic evidence that is its basis to include what Skwirblies calls ‘embodied fabulation’. As a concept, embodied fabulation does two things: one, it helps to focus archival research more strongly on embodied practices in the archive, and two, it fosters a critical reflection on the archive which includes understanding the researcher-subjects in their own embodiment. In that way, embodied fabulation helps to advance a series of speculative arguments about what is not always present in the archive, what has been silenced and marginalised in the logic of archival documentability as well as arguments about how these gaps could occur in the first place. Embodied fabulation not only helps us identify and signal where gaps exist in the archive, it also allows us to imagine embodied and performative knowledge—as archival knowledge—into these gaps. |
| Page range | pp. 247–268 |
| Print length | 22 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Lisa Skwirblies is Assistant Professor in Theatre Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests are on colonial histories, performance histories, and the archive. Lisa holds a PhD from the University of Warwick and between 2018 and 2020 held a Marie-Curie International Research Fellowship (Horizon 2020) at the University of Munich. Some of her most recent publications include the chapter ‘Colonial Theatricality’ in the Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance (2020), edited by Rai et al. and the edited collection Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/dekolonial (2023), ed. by Sharifi and Skwirblies. Lisa also works as a dramaturg in the Netherlands and Berlin and has been a board member of the SPRING festival in Utrecht.