Memento mori is a broad and understudied cultural phenomenon and experience. The term âmemento moriâ is a Latin injunction that means âremember mortality,â or more directly, âremember that you must die.â In art and cultural history, memento mori appears widely, especially in medieval folk culture and in the well-known Dutch still life vanitas paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Yet memento mori extends well beyond these points in art and cultural history. In Death in Documentaries: The Memento Mori Experience, Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter suggests that documentaries are an especially apt form of contemporary memento mori. Bennett-Carpenter shows that documentaries may offer composed transformative experiences in which a viewer may renew oneâs consciousness of mortality â and thus renew oneâs life.
Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter, Ph.D. (2008), Catholic University of America, is Special Lecturer in Writing and Rhetoric and the Liberal Studies program at Oakland University in Michigan, USA. Recent publications appear in the Journal of Communication and Religion and the journal Mortality.
Preface Acknowledgments
Introduction
âBasics of Memento Mori
âFrom Art and Cultural History to Contemporary Documentary
âFeatures of Memento Mori and How Memento Mori Functions
âLevels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Documentaries
âA Rhetorically-Oriented Phenomenology Applied to Documentaries
âComposed Transformative Experience: Introducing Documentaries as Memento Mori
âThe Program Ahead
1 Memento Mori in Art and Literature
â1.1âMemento Mori in Art: As Symbol and as Picture
ââ1.1.1âMemento Mori as Religious Image
ââ1.1.2âMemento Mori as Still Life and as Portraiture
ââ1.1.3âMemento Mori as Visual Quotation in Art, Including Photography
â1.2âMemento Mori in Literature: As Verbal, Literary, and Ideational
ââ1.2.1âMemento Mori as Picture Nomenclature and Verbal Instruction
ââ1.2.2âMemento Mori as Reference in Literature: Verbatim and Ideational
â1.3âMemento Mori in Film and Television
2 Charles and Ray Eamesâs Powers of Ten as Memento Mori
â2.1âThe Eameses as Designers of Experiences that Communicate Ideas
â2.2âLevels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Powers
ââ2.2.1âSymbolic, Verbal, and Ideational Memento Mori in Powers
ââ2.2.2âMemento Mori as Mortality-Index in Powers
ââ2.2.3âMemento Mori as Convention and Experience in or Related to Powers
â2.3âThe Intellectually Transformative Point of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by Powers
3 Memento Mori as âConsciousness of Mortalityâ and as a Cultural Phenomenon
â3.1âMemento Mori is an Index of Death
ââ3.1.1âMemento Mori (in Any Form) Refers to Death
ââ3.1.2âMemento Mori Relies upon Consciousness, Memory in Particular
â3.2âMemento Mori is Also an Artificial Convention
ââ3.2.1âMemento Mori is an Artifice with a History or Cultural Genealogy that Relies upon Particular Social Reception
ââ3.2.2âMemento Mori Relates to Various and Specific Genres, Media, and Materials
â3.3âMemento Mori as Composed Transformative Experience
ââ3.3.1âGeneral Aspects of Memento Mori Experience
ââ3.3.2âIntellectually, Ethically, and Affectively Transformative Elements of Memento Mori Experience
â3.4âA Contemporary Form of Memento Mori: Documentaries
4 Ethical Memento Mori: Wim Wendersâs Notebook on Cities and Clothes
â4.1âWenders as Contemplative Documentarian of Mortals
â4.2âLevels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Notebook
ââ4.2.1âMemento Mori as Symbolic, Verbal, and Ideational in Notebook
ââ4.2.2âMemento Mori as Mortality-index in Notebook
ââ4.2.3âMemento Mori as Convention and Experience in or Related to Notebook
â4.3âThe Ethically Transformative Point of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by Notebook
5 Documentaries as Contemporary Memento Mori
â5.1âDocumentaries Index Death
â5.2âDocumentaries Also Rely on Convention with a Particular History and Function
â5.3âDocumentaries as Composed Transformative Experience
ââ5.3.1âDocumentaries as Intellectually Transformative: Determining and Distinguishing the Real from Irreal
ââ5.3.2âDocumentaries as Ethically Transformative: Contemplating Appropriate Responses to the Mortal Condition
ââ5.3.3âDocumentaries as Affectively Transformative: Moving Individuals into Distinctive Human Experience
â5.4âLevels of Analysis by Which Memento Mori is Identified in Specific Documentaries
6 Quintessential Memento Mori Experience: Derek Jarmanâs Blue (1993)
â6.1âA Word on Jarman as Ecstatic Seer
â6.2âLevels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Blue
ââ6.2.1âMemento Mori as Verbal, Literary, and Ideational in Blue
ââ6.2.2âMemento Mori as Mortality-index and convention in or related to Blue
â6.3âThe Affectively Transformative Point of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by Blue
7 Personal Memento Mori: The Iconic 9/11 Footage and the Threat of Death
â7.1âThe Viewer as Contemplative Seer of the Threat of Death
ââ7.1.1âThe 12th of September, 2001, Comet Burger Diner, usa
ââ7.1.2âWhen Memento Mori Strikes Close
â7.2âLevels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by the 9/11 Footage
ââ7.2.1âMemento Mori as Symbolic, Ideational, and Composed in the 9/11 Footage
ââ7.2.2âMemento Mori as Mediated Mortality-index, Indicated by the 9/11 Footage
â7.3âPersonally Transformative Points of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by the 9/11 Footage
ââ7.3.1âRealizing Oneâs Place as a Mortal in a Vast Cosmos
ââ7.3.2ââMaking oneâs lifeâ as a Mortal in 21st Century âglocalâ Society
ââ7.3.3âMoving Oneâs Self into Distinctive Human Experience
â7.4âCounterpoint: Memento Mori as Death Threat in Extremist YouTube Videos
8 Conclusion and Future Prospects
â8.1âAfter Death in Documentaries
â8.2âFrom Memento Mori to Memento Vivere?
â8.3âMemento Mori in New Media Environments
References
âBibliography
âArchives and Special Sites
âFootage
âFilmography (Chronological)
Index
All interested in culture and film, literature and art, and existential human themes of survival, well-being, death, and consciousness, including curious general readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars.