Preface IX
Acknowledgments XI
Introduction 1
Basics of Memento Mori 2
From Art and Cultural History to Contemporary Documentary 4
Features of Memento Mori and How Memento Mori Functions 10
Levels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Documentaries 13
A Rhetorically-Oriented Phenomenology Applied to Documentaries 16
Composed Transformative Experience: Introducing Documentaries as Memento Mori 21
The Program Ahead 26
1
Memento Mori in Art and Literature 29
1.1
Memento Mori in Art: As Symbol and as Picture 30
1.1.1
Memento Mori as Religious Image 31
1.1.2
Memento Mori as Still Life and as Portraiture 34
1.1.3
Memento Mori as Visual Quotation in Art, Including Photography 37
1.2
Memento Mori in Literature: As Verbal, Literary, and Ideational 40
1.2.1
Memento Mori as Picture Nomenclature and Verbal Instruction 41
1.2.2
Memento Mori as Reference in Literature: Verbatim and Ideational 41
2
Charles and Ray Eames’s Powers of Ten as Memento Mori 56
2.1
The Eameses as Designers of Experiences that Communicate Ideas 58
2.2
Levels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Powers 60
2.2.1
Symbolic, Verbal, and Ideational Memento Mori in Powers 61
2.2.2
Memento Mori as Mortality-Index in Powers 62
2.2.3
Memento Mori as Convention and Experience in or Related to Powers 65
2.3
The Intellectually Transformative Point of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by Powers 69
3
Memento Mori as “Consciousness of Mortality” and as a Cultural Phenomenon 71
3.1
Memento Mori is an Index of Death 71
3.1.1
Memento Mori (in Any Form) Refers to Death 72
3.1.2
Memento Mori Relies upon Consciousness, Memory in Particular 76
3.2
Memento Mori is Also an Artificial Convention 79
3.2.1
Memento Mori is an Artifice with a History or Cultural Genealogy that Relies upon Particular Social Reception 79
3.2.2
Memento Mori Relates to Various and Specific Genres, Media, and Materials 83
3.3
Memento Mori as Composed Transformative Experience 85
3.3.1
General Aspects of Memento Mori Experience 86
3.3.2
Intellectually, Ethically, and Affectively Transformative Elements of Memento Mori Experience 88
3.4
A Contemporary Form of Memento Mori: Documentaries 90
4
Ethical Memento Mori: Wim Wenders’s Notebook on Cities and Clothes 91
4.1
Wenders as Contemplative Documentarian of Mortals 93
4.2
Levels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Notebook 94
4.2.1
Memento Mori as Symbolic, Verbal, and Ideational in Notebook 94
4.2.2
Memento Mori as Mortality-index in Notebook 96
4.2.3
Memento Mori as Convention and Experience in or Related to Notebook 99
4.3
The Ethically Transformative Point of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by Notebook 103
5
Documentaries as Contemporary Memento Mori 108
5.1
Documentaries Index Death 108
5.2
Documentaries Also Rely on Convention with a Particular History and Function 114
5.3
Documentaries as Composed Transformative Experience 119
5.3.1
Documentaries as Intellectually Transformative: Determining and Distinguishing the Real from Irreal 122
5.3.2
Documentaries as Ethically Transformative: Contemplating Appropriate Responses to the Mortal Condition 123
5.3.3
Documentaries as Affectively Transformative: Moving Individuals into Distinctive Human Experience 125
5.4
Levels of Analysis by Which Memento Mori is Identified in Specific Documentaries 126
6
Quintessential Memento Mori Experience: Derek Jarman’s Blue 131
6.1
A Word on Jarman as Ecstatic Seer 134
6.2
Levels at Which Memento Mori is Referenced by Blue 135
6.2.1
Memento Mori as Verbal, Literary, and Ideational in Blue 136
6.2.2
Memento Mori as Mortality-index and Convention in or Related to Blue 138
6.3
The Affectively Transformative Point of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by Blue 142
7
Personal Memento Mori: The Iconic 9/11 Footage and the Threat of Death 144
7.1
The Viewer as Contemplative Seer of the Threat of Death 144
7.1.1
The 12th of September, 2001, Comet Burger Diner, usa 145
7.1.2
When Memento Mori Strikes Close 147
7.2.1
Memento Mori as Symbolic, Ideational, and Composed in the 9/11 Footage 151
7.2.2
Memento Mori as Mediated Mortality-index, Indicated by the 9/11 Footage 154
7.3
Personally Transformative Points of Memento Mori Experience, Referenced by the 9/11 Footage 159
7.3.1
Realizing One’s Place as a Mortal in a Vast Cosmos 161
7.3.2
“Making one’s life” as a Mortal in 21st Century “glocal” Society 162
7.3.3
Moving One’s Self into Distinctive Human Experience 164
7.4
Counterpoint: Memento Mori as Death Threat in Extremist YouTube Videos 164
8
Conclusion and Future Prospects 171
8.1
After Death in Documentaries 172
8.2
From Memento Mori to Memento Vivere? 173
8.3
Memento Mori in New Media Environments 176
References 181
Bibliography 181
Archives and Special Sites 202
Footage 203
Filmography (Chronological) 203
Index 206