Sophie Gee

I love that, that idea of the call and response.

And that really comes across in the writing, doesn't it?

Because I'm not nearly so well read in.

Yeah.

the background of slave narrative or the archival materials or American literature generally.

And yet that still came across to me reading.

And I wonder whether that's sort of one of the things that's extraordinary about Morrison's writing is that it feels in conversation and feels kind of as though it's in a living dialogue, even if you don't quite know what the writing is or the experience is.

I suppose that differentiates her stories from formal narratives by enslaved people where it's purposefully and specifically written to be read, to be published, printed and disseminated.

Obviously, Morrison knows she's going to be published, but it's sort of recovering orality as well.

But we're sort of thinking together about these intercutting narratives, intercutting stories, the way that history is interwoven with presentness and also actually she's thinking a lot about the future in the writing.

I'd love to ask you about your work with the archives.

If you could explain a little bit, first of all, about why the Morrison Collection is at Princeton, why it's so important, what's in it, and then how you have come to know it and maybe some highlights.

Was a lot lost in the fight?

That's enormous.

I actually hadn't realized that.

Autumn, I've read you speaking really wonderfully and powerfully about why archives matter to you.

And it's going to be very interesting for listeners because the word archive, I think, is quite boring for most people.

The majority of readers, even really enthusiastic readers, have probably never spent time in an archive.

And to think about one, even for me as a scholar who uses archives, it's pretty overwhelming, you know.

So tell us about what archives, why they're important to you and how you navigate them.