Screen Memory - Department of English

econfigures) the past into a form that can be ‘integrated’ into
the present. Narrative memory, which is at the core of historical
representation both on paper and on film transforms the past as a
condition of retaining the past” (1995a:100). The argument
against historical narrativity was set by Hayden White. It arises
out of a desire to have real events display the
coherence, integrity, fullness, and closure of an image
of life that is and can only be imaginary. The notion
that sequences of real events possess the formal
attributes of the stories we tell about imaginary
events could only have its origin in wishes, daydreams,
reveries (1987:24).
Within the context of film theory, Christian Metz developed
a model of memory in which, between the end of a film and the
lighting of the theatre, an instantaneous act of narrativization
organizes the diverse understandings and associations we have had
of the stream of images. It is a model based on Freud’s notion of
nachträglichkeit, and it can be applied to other imaginative
experiences, like reading a novel: “the very issue of
authoritative meanings in a story can be raised only once the end
of the story is known. With a novel, for instance, it is only at
the end that one can tell the adumbrations from the false leads;
things fall into place in retrospect” (McCole 276).
Others argue that memory is just as dependent on narrative
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