The Harry Ransom Center presents the seventh biennial Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium,
Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives, and Institutions
November 13-15, 2008
In 1918, literary critic Van Wyck Brooks argued for a new approach to the study of American literature. To revitalize the field, Brooks introduced the concept of "creating a usable past" by "approach[ing] our literature from the point of view not of successful fact but of creative impulse...What emerges then is the desire, the aspiration, the struggle, the tentative endeavor, and the appalling obstacles our life has placed before [the writer]." The belief in the value of studying the creative process continues to be at the heart of the work of many archives and research libraries, including the Ransom Center, and the concept of "creating a usable past," that Brooks articulated nearly a century ago, still resonates with archivists, writers, scholars, and administrators today.
Indeed Brooks's succinct phrase encapsulates many of the issues that form the foundation of modern archival work: preservation, conservation, digitization, and access. And Brooks also leads us to question another, less-frequently discussed aspect of archives: to what extent is any particular archive a creation? As writers ponder what and what not to save, as archivists decide on a particular arrangement of the papers they receive—are they, whether actively or not, actually inventing a past that will shape future scholarship?
These are among the concepts and ideas at the center of the Harry Ransom Center's 2008 Flair Symposium, "Creating a Usable Past: Writers, Archives, and Institutions." During the three-day event, writers, archivists, dealers, agents, and scholars will seek to understand the forces that create, protect, provide access to, and interpret literary archives.
The Flair Symposium, held biennially at the Ransom Center, honors the ideals set forth by Fleur Cowles and her landmark Flair magazine.
Flair Registration
Registration for the Flair Symposium is now open. You may register through the Ransom Center's online store. Registration is open to the public with a limited number of spaces available to students at a discounted price. Members of the Harry Ransom Center also receive a discount.
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