Epistemology, Truth, and Interpretation in Christopher Nolan's Memento

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2013-05-16T08:15:34Z
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Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000) is a complex neo-noir motion picture, which thematizes the interrelationship of subjectivity and reality through its radically subjectivized narrative technique. The film makes it impossible for the viewer to obtain objective knowledge about the characters and the events happening, whereby it indirectly engages in a philosophical discussion over the nature of truth. It represents two opposing epistemological positions through the characters of Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) and Teddy (Joe Pantoliano), but these positions become problematized in such a way that eventually they turn out to be interconnected in various respects. Critical interpretations of Memento often claim allegiance to the view that the film completely deconstructs the notions of truth and objectivity, which results in readings that cannot go further than positing ambiguity and unknowability as the only “valid” subject matter of the film. I contend, however, that the film’s treatment of truth and knowledge is more complex than that: it does not only dismantle objective knowledge, but reconstructs a thoroughly non-metaphysical concept of truth through metaphorical redescription and language games as rhetorical strategies. This view of the film opens up the possibility of a Rortyan “ironist” reading, operating with the view that the criteria of validating truth-claims are not functions of correspondence to “reality,” but those of persuasiveness and coherence.

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Memento, epistemology
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