On the trails of the archive: a possible look at Hilda Hilst’s Archive Group

Abstract

In this work, we present a possible look on the formation of Hilda Hilst's archive collection, the writer's archive, located in the Center of Cultural Documentation Alexander Eulálio (CEDAE/UNICAMP). Starting from Serge Margel thoughts about archives and Philippe Artères’ (1998) concept of “archiving the self”, we reflect briefly on the process of  building Hilda Hilst's archive and its possible meanings. Materials such as fragments of letters and diaries show aspects of the writer's creation process and provide elements for the analysis of her artistic projects and her relationship with the spaces of the literary circuit, such as publishing companies and other means of publicizing her work. On the other hand, the historical rescue of the sale of materials from the archive by the writer herself to UNICAMP in the 1990s is a crucial aspect of an attempt to map the construction of the collection by the author, because it allows us to think about Hilda Hilst’s intentionality, pointing to an understanding of the archive as part of her work and as consecration strategy.