The general horizon or frame of what French historian Foucault, Michel called archaeology analysis. The archive is a generic term for the limit of what can be known about a particular moment or period in history. In itself it consists of discursive practice, by which Foucault means the anonymous rules of language, economics, history, society that taken together enable a culture to function. By its nature, however, it is never fully available for inspection. Indeed, Foucault quite categorically states that the archive of oneâs own time is unknowable. Thus, both our knowledge of it and our ability to describe it will only ever be fragmentary at best. In Mal dâarchive: une impression freudienne (1995) translated as Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression (1998), Derrida, Jacques explores the limits of the knowability of the archive that is our personal history. Further Reading: J. Bernauer Michel Foucaultâs Force of Flight (1990).