ANANACHRONISTIC HISTORIES: RETHINKING TRAUMA AND VISUAL ETHICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

My dissertation studies the historical and ethical implications of cultural memorialisation of collective trauma, when considered against traditional modes of historical continuity or national imagination. I examine the use of visual rhetoric in texts, ekphrastic and visual, by artists such as Balzac, Alain Resnais, Michael Haneke, Mrinal Sen, Ari Folman, Rithy Panh, and Joe Sacco to address questions such as: how does the use of visual rhetoric help produce ethical modes of telling the truths of history and memory? How can the idea of memory in an anachronistic context address the question of justice and help respond to the demands of recognition and representation? How does the latent force of a narrative, considered in the aftermath of violence stand in relation to time and reality that would be in excess of the past and history?