Memory, Movies, and the Brain
Memory, Movies, and the Brain
This chapter discusses memory's contributions to the world of cinema, serving dramatic and comical purposes from cinema's earliest days. In the 1980s, movies joined in the convergent rise of cyberpunk and the cognitive neurosciences by exhibiting an explicit connection between memory and the brain, as well as a connection to various neurotechnologies. A central feature of the movies under scrutiny in this chapter is that, although amnesia is often attributed to brain damage, it makes sense only in the light of protagonists' personal histories, experiences, and existential quests. Both before and after making a cerebral diagnosis, films—like short stories, novels, and the sciences of memory themselves—must turn toward the mind. The chasm that separates films from psychology, psychiatry, and the neurosciences reflects the beliefs and concerns of the cultures where they are produced and consumed.
Keywords: memory, cinema, cyberpunk, cognitive neurosciences, brain, neurotechnologies, amnesia, brain damage, cerebral diagnosis, mind
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