%0 Journal Article
%T From History to Memory: Alain ResnaisĄ¯ and Marguerite DurasĄ¯ Hiroshima mon amour
%A Sarah French
%J EMAJ : Electronic Melbourne Art Journal
%D 2008
%I EMAJ
%X This paper examines the representation of history and memory in Alain ResnaisĄ¯ and Marguerite DurasĄ¯ 1959 film Hiroshima mon amour. It argues that the filmĄ¯s privileging of subjective remembrance reflects a broader cultural interest in using memory as a counter discourse to established history. The widely documented cultural preoccupation with memory became particularly prominent in the early 1980s. However, Hiroshima mon amour can be read as an important early example of a film that predates the contemporary ĄŽmemory boomĄ¯. For Resnais and Duras, the magnitude of the devastation in Hiroshima exceeds the limits of filmic representation. Their solution to the problem that the historic event is unrepresentable is to approach the event indirectly while focusing on an individual traumatic memory. Through a close analysis and critique of the film I argue that the filmĄ¯s emphasis on individual memory validates the legitimacy of the personal narrative but problematically subsumes the political events and displaces history from the discursive realm. I also suggest that problems emerge in the filmĄ¯s depiction of its traumatised female subject. While Hiroshima mon amour represents a complex female subjectivity and interiority, the process of remembrance depicted deprives the woman of agency and renders her trapped within a compulsive repetition of the past.
%K Film History
%K 20th century film
%U http://emajartjournal.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/french.pdf