Trauma, Memory and Information in American SF Film and Television, 1980-2010

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The article explores the ways in which recent American sf film and television have participated in the wider interest in the topics of human memory and psychological trauma. The engagement with these topics in sf films and television shows has concentrated on their status in the midst of the information revolution. The return of traumatic memories has been represented as an ‘information overload’ that the human psyche cannot process, whereas individual memories have been treated as ‘information’ that can be stored, retrieved and manipulated. The convergence of ‘memory’, ‘trauma’ and ‘information’ is seen as part of a more general trend to theorise and perceive of the human psyche as an information system during the period of modernity. This, in turn, is discussed as part of an even wider tendency
    to conceptualise the human subject as a machine to be analysed, optimised and disciplined,
    a tendency integral to what Foucault has termed biopower. The central place of memory,
    information and trauma in these popular texts, the article argues, is part of the attempt to
    represent the efforts of individuals to negotiate their sense of identity through strategies of
    resistance against wider social and institutional structures of power.The article explores the ways in which recent American sf film and television have participated
    in the wider interest in the topics of human memory and psychological trauma. The
    engagement with these topics in sf films and television shows has concentrated on their
    status in the midst of the information revolution. The return of traumatic memories has been
    represented as an ‘information overload’ that the human psyche cannot process, whereas
    individual memories have been treated as ‘information’ that can be stored, retrieved and
    manipulated. The convergence of ‘memory’, ‘trauma’ and ‘information’ is seen as part of a
    more general trend to theorise and perceive of the human psyche as an information system
    during the period of modernity. This, in turn, is discussed as part of an even wider tendency
    to conceptualise the human subject as a machine to be analysed, optimised and disciplined,
    a tendency integral to what Foucault has termed biopower. The central place of memory,
    information and trauma in these popular texts, the article argues, is part of the attempt to
    represent the efforts of individuals to negotiate their sense of identity through strategies of
    resistance against wider social and institutional structures of power.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)327-348
    Number of pages21
    JournalScience Fiction Film and Television
    Volume6
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Keywords

    • science fiction
    • film
    • television
    • memory
    • trauma
    • biopolitics
    • biopower

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