Memory is no longer what it used to be

Abstract

In Difference and Repetition, Gilles Deleuze develops a philosophy of time that allows three different conceptualizations of memory: memory conceived from the present, memory from the past and memory from the future.1 According to Deleuze, in any human being there is always an interplay between these different ways of conceiving memory and time more generally. On a more collective cultural level, however, I propose that we have moved into new dominant way of understanding memory: In the twenty-first century we increasingly conceive memory from the point of view of possible futures. In contemporary cinema, as well as elsewhere in culture, memory is no longer what it used to be.