Body, Memory and Irrelevancies in Hiroshima mon amour

TY - CHAP

T1 - Body, Memory and Irrelevancies in Hiroshima mon amour

AU - Hamilton, Christopher

PY - 2015/10

Y1 - 2015/10

N2 - The aim of this paper is to reflect on the way human beings tell the story of their lives by looking at a specific case of such, Alain Resnais' film Hiroshima mon amour. Partly by employing some fragments of the work of Simone Weil and Spinoza, and offering a new interpretation of the film, it is argued that the film draws attention to the way in which a human being is nothing more than his or her body. We can view ourselves this way in a certain mood but, generally speaking, we flee this knowledge of ourselves because it reveals our deepest vulnerability, knowledge of which we cannot bear. Hence, in fleeing it, we necessarily get things (partly) wrong in any autobiographical telling of our life, even as we seek to relate the truth.

AB - The aim of this paper is to reflect on the way human beings tell the story of their lives by looking at a specific case of such, Alain Resnais' film Hiroshima mon amour. Partly by employing some fragments of the work of Simone Weil and Spinoza, and offering a new interpretation of the film, it is argued that the film draws attention to the way in which a human being is nothing more than his or her body. We can view ourselves this way in a certain mood but, generally speaking, we flee this knowledge of ourselves because it reveals our deepest vulnerability, knowledge of which we cannot bear. Hence, in fleeing it, we necessarily get things (partly) wrong in any autobiographical telling of our life, even as we seek to relate the truth.

U2 - 10.7208/chicago/9780226268088.003.0004

DO - 10.7208/chicago/9780226268088.003.0004

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780226267890

VL - 1

SP - 72

EP - 95

BT - The Philosophy of Autobiography

A2 - Cowley, Christopher

PB - University of Chicago Press

ER -