Abstract

BRINKMAN-CLARK, William. The Black Archive: Penitentiary and archival operations in Lecumberri Palace. Hist. graf [online]. 2012, n.38, pp.127-169. ISSN 1405-0927.

Even though the legitimizing intentions of both the modern penitentiary and the archive - understood as the physical deposit of memory - are radically different, is it possible that their founding discourse and eventual consequences be similar? Built and established as a modern penitentiary in 1900, Lecumberri Palace in Mexico City has since housed the Mexico City Penitentiary and the National Archives. Through the analysis of the operations manifest in both spaces, and with the help of Michel Foucault's writings on discipline and domination, Jacques Derrida's work on the concept of archive, and the existing historiography on Lecumberri Palace, this article proposes the possibility that both archive and penitentiary can suffer the same type of ailment: Can Derrida's Archive Fever also be Penitentiary Fever?

Keywords : penitentiary; prison; archive; architecture; space; spatial operations; archive fever.

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