Why Was This Document Never Written? An Unsource Analysis Exercise

/ Ted McCormick
  1. Who would the author have been? Where, when, and why did they not write the source? What conditions made not writing such a document possible, probable, desirable, necessary?
  2. Why was the source not written in this particular form? What stylistic or social conventions shaped its not being written in this way? What aspects of its non-appearance are idiosyncratic?
  3. Does the literal sense of the non-document exhaust its meaning? Are there allegorical, metaphorical, or allusive dimensions to the unwritten text? Do any of the specific words or images not used especially stand out?
  4. What ideas, experiences, and traditions do you think the author drew on or responded to in not composing the text? How accurately does the document not represent them, and where does it depart from them? Is it original?
  5. What kinds of motivations and intentions is the document unable to suggest? What specific audience or audiences did it never reach? How did they react, or might they have reacted, to its absence?
  6. What unforeseen consequences might it never have had? What can it tell us about the historical events and contexts that did not produce it if we read it against the grain, rather than as the author did not apparently mean?
  7. How can we use this source and others like it to compose a reliable narrative or a compelling analysis of the events or the contexts that produced their absence?
  8. Do the best you can, in the space provided.

One thought on “Why Was This Document Never Written? An Unsource Analysis Exercise”

  1. memorious Tuesday, 15 August, 12:26 pm What kinds of motivations and intentions is the document unable to suggest? What specific audience or audiences did it never reach? How did they react, or might they have reacted, to its absence?What unforeseen consequences might it never have had? What can it tell us about the historical events and contexts that did not produce it if we read it against the grain, rather than as the author did not apparently mean?

    Kindest Regards Bill

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