New Materialisms in the Archive: in the mode of an œuvre à faire

In this paper I look at archival research methods that I have deployed in my research with women workers’ narratives in the light of new materialisms. In doing so there are four areas that I highlight and discuss: a) research approaches and methodologies that take the archive as a living organism and as a process; b) reading, analysing and ‘rewriting’ archival documents as ‘events’; c) excavating material, spatial and embodied imaginings and memories; d) taking the archival process as an œuvre à faire. The paper draws on archival work at the Bibliothèque Historique de la ville de Paris in the context of writing a feminist genealogy of the seamstress. What I argue is that understanding and practicing ‘how matter matters’ offers fresh insights in feminist histories in general and in women workers’ contribution to the cultural and political formations of modernity in particular.