The Lexicon · Genealogy · Contemporary
HARTMAN, SAIDIYA
b. 1961
Critical Fabulation (The Statement as Lineage)
Hartman: in the absence of an archive that records the lives of the enslaved, the historian must fabulate critically, narrating the lacunae with care. CoCA's practice_statement and lineage_claimed fields (§3.3) operate on a milder version of this principle. The artist may name forebears the institution has no other reason to know. The archive accepts the fabulation. The lineage is a critical relation, not a verified one.