In my master's thesis I researched and worked with concepts of individual and collective memory, individual and collective trauma, sites/realms of memory (and ruins), and ultimately the city as a mediator of trauma. In my master's thesis, I was interested in the city as a mediator of trauma in the films Hiroshima mon amour (Resnais and Duras, 1959) and La Jetée (Marker, 1962), which, broadly speaking, are part of the French New Wave (fr. Nouvelle Vague), a film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. Both films address the dangers and consequences of a nuclear catastrophe. I conducted a narrative, semiotic, and stylistic analysis of the selected films. I answered the research question and other sub-questions by analyzing narrative, semiotic, and stylistic elements – I analyzed the story, mise-en-scene, cinematic elements, montage/editing, and sound. My analysis revealed that in both films the city is a mediator of trauma; it is an entity through which and in which the individual remembers and experiences the traumatic nature of remembering. In both films, the ruins are a metaphor for the imperfect nature of memory – the memory of a traumatized individual is a ruin, a remnant of something that once was. Nevertheless, the city is what fills in the gaps. The aim of the thesis was to connect the concepts by finding a common denominator and filling gaps that have not yet been theoretically reflected.
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