Finding Familiarity in the Past Through the Archives

    Kenyon takes clear pride in its "Writer's College" status, using it as a status symbol and a tool for collectivity. All the students who go here, and all who've gone here, share this collective identity of the institution. It's an intense and (kinda) forced grouping; even non-writers engage with this reputation. Digging into the archives shows this on full display. Our group's exhibit focuses on notable people, and our hour spent in the archives was very writer-centric. I focused on Carl Djerassi, whom a document from the archives described as an "Orator, chemist, professor, editor, world traveler." Most strikingly, the archives contained many of Djerassi's college essays. I read works about prostitution, chemical bonds, religion, and more. His miscellaneous essay topics are a reflection of the college's liberal arts status, and Djerassi went on to write multiple plays, staging two of them at Kenyon. It floored me to be able to read his type-written essays from junior year, stepping into the mind of his 20-year-old self. I felt connected to him and to the institution and found familiarity in his essay stances and grammatical tendencies. I read his Professor's comments with a known anxiety of critique. Attached below are two images of quotes from his Kenyon essays. I was particularly struck by the notion of a negative nirvana, and found it wonderful how much I could learn from essays not written for me as their audience, and essays written by someone my age who's no longer alive.

    Bellah, et al. 's work "Habits of the Heart" deeply resonated. I've always valued tradition; my dad has instilled the importance of steady morals upheld through practice since I was born. Reading theory that put this into words was really exciting. Their emphasis on "communities of hope" (Bellah et al., 1985, 229), groups fueled by memory that allow us to utilize our aspirations for "a common good" (Bellah et al., 1985, 229), instilled a deeper understanding of how tradition, specifically the practices that uphold said tradition, is an important tool for upholding communities and upholding faith (in a religious and non-religious sense). An additional, important emphasis was placed on how we're tempted toward a sort of empty community, one that upholds itself only through similarity and not through any practice of principle, moral, or aesthetic self. This is more evidence that tradition matters; without it, we lose our sense of hope and a bit of our sense of self. Without the practice of tradition, we lose hope and aspirations that propel society positively forward. True, Hobsbawm's "Introduction: Inventing Traditions" and the first chapter from Yazdih's "The Struggle for the People's King" place suspicion on tradition by showcasing how traditionalists can inhibit society from moving forward by maintaining harmful practices and false representations of the past. I recognize this argument and agree with it. Suspicion and a critical lens are important when engaging with tradition. I do not think this immediately negates the impact and importance tradition holds for communities of hope and for building a positive, hopeful future. 

    Bellah's theory as outlined above is evident when diving into Kenyon's archives. It's clear that Kenyon attempts to build community through writing, and their act of preserving Djerassi's Kenyon essays showcases this. They're building a narrative of Djerassi, and Kenyon, that places writing at the forefront of importance. Most arguably the tradition in this case would be the tradition of writing in the Kenyon community. Kenyon believes that through writing one gains a deeper understanding of the self and of the world, which Bellah argues makes a community of hope possible. The act of archiving certain things serves to emphasize the tradition of writing within this institution. Djerassi used his aspirations for "a common good" (Bellah et al., 1985, 229) and this was manifested, and now is recorded, with his writing. It's also arguable that writing is not a tradition but is merely the practice of a tradition that serves to uphold and communicate a group's morals. I believe the argument still stands that Kenyon uses writing as a tool for upholding a communal identity and that there's importance in recording this communal identity to share it later. This all cycles around familiarity, in the sense that members of the current Kenyon community find familiarity in the acts of past members. I found familiarity in those archives by reading Dejerassi's work and putting myself in his shoes. It solidified intently my identity as a Kenyon writer.