The current paper analyses the ways in which the concept of ‘archive’ has changed over time and how it has come to denote a broader category of hitherto unused material. In history, archives are no more ‘positivistic sites’ from where hard-core historical facts are to be mined, but places where power is articulated, negotiated and even contested. The present essay shows how ‘marginal’ and ‘pulp’ literature can actually redefine existing notions of sexuality as well as reforming agenda.