Realised recordings: how documentary structures question the communication, construction and memory of the Real of past occurrences

摘要

This thesis offers a comparison of documentary case studies to explore how moments from reality are recorded and how future representations of them can offer or instigate a parallax to create a new or different way of understanding the occurrence of such moments and how they have been remembered. I postulate that this shift in perspective offers an interaction with reality through a reconfiguration of the Real of these moments. The study will consider this assertion in relation to Žižek’s and Baudrillard’s reflections on the Real as being an excessive moment unable to be assimilated (Žižek) and the veiled encapsulation of what lies beyond the Image-Event (Baudrillard). After exploring the use of images from reality, my thesis will go on to consider the processes of recollecting and communicating past occurrences (and people) to highlight the potential that documenting and revisiting past memories – re-collecting them – can actively impact and evolve the trajectory of personal histories. Utilising LaCapra’s notion of the working through traumatic memories enables my investigation to plot a course which considers the memory narratives of my case studies as subject to a, ‘continual process of retranslation’ (Nicola King) and, as such, explores the subjectivity of the Real of occurrences.