Landscapes of Oblivion and Historical Memory in the New Italian Cinema (1) (Critical Essay‪)‬

Le forme del tempo sono legate alle forme della memoria, e queste, a loro volta, sono connesse alle strutture essenziali della comunicazione in cui la memoria si esprime. (Vidali 187) In closure of the selected proceedings of a seminar held in 1984 by the Cultural Association "Dora Markus" on the forms of time and memory in contemporary culture, Paolo Vidali sets the premises on which to build his engaging hypothesis on contemporary temporal forms. In his argument he attempts to find an answer to compelling questions such as: "Esiste una temporalita propria della comunicazione caratteristica del nostro secolo, quella di massa?" and "Che storia, o che narrazione, si sviluppa a partire da una comunicazione che usa il linguaggio audiovisivo e la memoria elettronica?" (187). Vidali moves from several assumptions, the primary of which being that our time is characterized by an awareness of the intentional structure of time, thus its non-linearity, and its plurality and transformism in accordance with the diverse cultural contexts. (2) Today memory has transformed as well: not only does memory articulate itself in the form of time, but time is also shaped by the mnemonic act (Vidali 186). Vidali then raises another question closely linked to those mentioned above, "Possiamo allora generalizzare quanto detto nel sostenere che il tempo si lascia informare dal linguaggio in quanto esso da significato alla memoria, individuale e collettiva?" (187). He continues by observing that, if it is true, as Walter Benjamin maintained, that history is born together with meaning in human language (Benjamin II.1: 139), then we can postulate that the plurality of languages becomes the index of a plurality of the temporal forms. Thus, the genesis of new communicative techniques generates new temporal forms. It seems to me that were we to match these questions with Jean Baudrillard's observations on the present as the time of simulation and thus of the triumph of the simulacra (Simulations), they would become even more engaging and compelling. We would perhaps discover that the place of simulacra is the locus of a serial, unending memory, and thus of a contemporary interpretation and, most importantly, representation of oblivion. Such a peculiar and contemporary mnemonic act stands, quite clearly, in sharp contrast to historical memory.