%0 Journal Article %A Schliephake, Christopher Martin %T The materiality of history and the shifting shapes of memory in John Hersey’s "Hiroshima" and Alain Resnais’s "Hiroshima Mon Amour" %D 2013 %@ 2171-9594 %U http://hdl.handle.net/10017/20301 %X The essay argues that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima cannot be told without taking into account and recognising the diverse entanglements of matter that were (and still are) involved in this historic event. In order to analyse the multiple meanings connected to the bombing, the essay draws on Serenella Iovino and Serpil Opperman’s theory of “material ecocriticism”, which deals with the way in which various material forms interact with the human or social dimension, constantly producing configurations of meanings and discourses. Consequently, the essay points out that memory of Hiroshima is a prime example for the interplay of material-­‐discursive relations, which do not allow for the coherent storytelling of this past event, but for an ever-­‐changing fragmentation and (re)negotiation of meaning. This latter aspect is extensively dealt with in the analysis of John Hersey’s 1946 newspaper article “Hiroshima” and Alain Resnais’s 1959 film “Hiroshima Mon Amour”, based on a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. The analysis examines to what extent these diverse medial representations constitute “historical matter” themselves, which help(ed) to shape the cultural memory of the nuclear attack, and how they manage, through documentary/narrative/filmic measures, to reflect on the material entanglements of the bombing of Hiroshima. History and memory are thereby not only seen as merely cognitive undertakings, but as dynamic material processes that entail various ethical implications. %K Material ecocriticism %K Memory %K Trauma %K Hiroshima %K Ecocrítica material %K Memoria %K Literatura %K Literature %K Medio ambiente %K Environmental science %~ Biblioteca Universidad de Alcala