Feverish Souls: Archives, Identity, and Trauma in Fihris and Ḥiṣn Al-Turāb

The archive is used both literally and metaphorically as a manifestation of theubiquity of power and the authority invested in material archives. To work fromthe margin and in secrecy is a trait of the subaltern quest of both Wadood thebookseller and Dr Nameer, as well as the different characters of the De Molinafamily. The official history written by the powers that be marginalizes theother. However, the digging of the archives by the subaltern raises the hope ofan alternative history that saves the traces of the subaltern. The archiveincludes physical archives, manuscripts, artefacts, stamps, cassettes, andphotos, as amply shown in Fihris. In Ḥiṣnal-turāb , the archive has more of a metaphoric than literalmeaning: it is the spectral topos of suppressed desire andrecovered memory. The archive enables the subaltern to speak by digging up andeven making up archives. Both quests are feverish and reflect the trauma thatmotivates digging up the past as recovered memory and the desire to keep tracesof the past as tokens of a marginalized identity seeking redress. Archives aretokens of the past that threaten the integrity of the history written by thepowerful: the hunter. The victims question that history and create nuisance thatoffers hope of a more just history that includes the marginalizedsubalterns.