Table Of ContentMemento
Within a short space of time, the film Memento has already been hailed as
a modern classic. Memorably narrated in reverse, from the perspective
of Leonard Shelby, the film’s central character, it follows Leonard’s
chaotic and visceral quest to discover the identity of his wife’s killer
and avenge her murder, despite his inability to form new long-term
memories.
This is the first book to explore and address the myriad philosophical
questions raised by the film, concerning personal identity, free will,
memory, knowledge, and action. It also explores problems in aesthetics
raised by the film through its narrative structure, ontology, and genre.
Beginning with a helpful introduction that places the film in context and
maps out its complex structure, specially commissioned chapters examine
the following topics:
• Memory, emotion, and self-consciousness
• Agency, free will, and responsibility
• Personal identity
• Narrative and popular cinema
• Film genre such as neo-noir
• Mementoand multimedia.
Including annotated further reading at the end of each chapter, Memento
is essential reading for students interested in philosophy and film studies.
Contributors: Noël Carroll, Richard Hanley, Andrew Kania, Deborah
Knight and George McKnight, Joseph Levine, Raymond Martin, Michael
McKenna, and John Sutton.
Andrew Kaniais Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University,
San Antonio. His principle research is in the philosophy of music, film,
and literature and he is the co-editor (with Theodore Gracyk) of the
forthcoming Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music.
Philosophers on Film
The true significance of film for philosophy, and of philosophy for
film, cannot be established in abstract or general terms. It can only
be measured in and through individual philosophers’ attempts to
account for their experience of specific films. This series promises
to provide a productive context for that indispensable enterprise.
Stephen Mulhall, Fellow and Reader in Philosophy,
New College, Oxford
In recent years, the use of film in teaching and doing philosophy has
moved to center stage. Film is increasingly used to introduce key topics
and problems in philosophy, from ethics and aesthetics to epistemology,
metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. It is also acknowledged that some
films raise important philosophical questions of their own. Yet until now,
dependable resources for teachers and students of philosophy using film
have remained very limited. Philosophers on Filmanswers this growing need
and is the first series of its kind.
Each volume assembles a team of international contributors to explore
a single film in depth, making the series ideal for classroom use. Beginning
with an introduction by the editor, each specially commissioned chapter
will discuss a key aspect of the film in question. Additional features include
a biography of the director and suggestions for further reading.
Philosophers on Film is an ideal series for students studying philosophy
and film, aesthetics, and ethics and anyone interested in the philosophical
dimensions of cinema.
Available:
• Talk to Her, edited by A. W. Eaton
• The Thin Red Line, edited by David Davies
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, edited by Christopher Grau
Forthcoming:
• Blade Runner, edited by Amy Coplan
• Fight Club, edited by Thomas E. Wartenberg
• Vertigo, edited by Katalin Makkai
Memento
Edited by
Andrew Kania
This edition published 2009
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2009 Andrew Kania for selection and editorial matter;
individual contributors for their contributions
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Memento/edited by Andrew Kania.
p. cm.—(Philosophers on film)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Memento (Motion picture). 2. Philosophy in motion pictures.
3. Memory in motion pictures. 4. Identity (Psychology) in motion
pictures. 5. Motion pictures—Aesthetics. I. Kania, Andrew.
PN1997.M4344M46 2009
791.43′72—dc22 2008053198
ISBN 0-203-87659-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–77473–X (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–77474–8 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–87659–8 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–77473–4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–77474–1 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–87659–6 (ebk)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Contributor biographies ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Note on the director xv
Andrew Kania 1
INTRODUCTION
Scene tables 13
1 Michael McKenna 23
MORAL MONSTER OR RESPONSIBLE PERSON?
MEMENTO’S LEONARD AS A CASE STUDY IN
DEFECTIVE AGENCY
2 Joseph Levine 45
LEONARD’S SYSTEM: WHY DOESN’T IT WORK?
3 John Sutton 65
THE FEEL OF THE WORLD: EXOGRAMS, HABITS,
AND THE CONFUSION OF TYPES OF MEMORY
vi CONTENTS
4 Raymond Martin 87
THE VALUE OF MEMORY: REFLECTIONS
ON MEMENTO
5 Richard Hanley 107
MEMENTOAND PERSONAL IDENTITY:
DO WE HAVE IT BACKWARDS?
6 Noël Carroll 127
MEMENTOAND THE PHENOMENOLOGY
OF COMPREHENDING MOTION PICTURE
NARRATION
7 Deborah Knight and George McKnight 147
RECONFIGURING THE PAST: MEMENTO
AND NEO-NOIR
8 Andrew Kania 167
WHAT IS MEMENTO? ONTOLOGY AND
INTERPRETATION IN MAINSTREAM
FILM
Index 189
Scene index 192
Illustrations
0.1 The structure of Memento’s story 3
0.2 The generation of Memento’s plot by a hairpin turn in
the plot 4
0.3 The structure of Memento’s plot 4
1 Space for Leonard’s final tattoo 37
2 Just part of Leonard’s system, or part of his mind? 60
3.1 Leonard puzzled by his sore hand 66
3.2 Don’t trust your weakness 83
4 Some of Leonard’s memory aids 90
5.1 Bodily continuity 111
5.2 Psychological continuity 115
5.3 Something Leonard has backwards 123
7 Leonard remembers (being?) Sammy Jankis 159
8 Some website material 178
Contributor biographies
Noël Carrollis a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the
City University of New York. His most recent books are The Philosophy of
Motion Picturesand On Criticism. Presently he is writing a book on humor for
Oxford University Press.
Richard Hanleyis Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of
Delaware. He specializes in metaphysics, philosophy of language, ethics,
and philosophy and popular culture. He is the author of The Metaphysics of
Star Trek, the main author of Philosophy and South Park: Bigger, Longer, and More
Penetrating, and has published several articles on science fictions.
Andrew Kaniais Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University
in San Antonio. His principle research is in the philosophy of music, film,
and literature. He recently won the inaugural Essay Prize of the British
Society of Aesthetics, and is currently co-editing The Routledge Companion to
Philosophy and Musicwith Theodore Gracyk.
Deborah Knight is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s
University, Kingston, Canada. Her main research area is the philosophy
of art, with emphases on literature and film. Recent publications include
chapters in Philosophy of Film and Moving Pictures(eds Noël Carroll and Jinhee
Choi), the Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (ed. Jerrold Levinson), Dark Thoughts:
