The anteroom of Siegfried Kracauer and Cees Nooteboom: Memory, history and image

Abstract

Taking as starting point the novel All Souls’ Day from the Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom and History - the last things before the last, from Siegfried Kracauer , this article aims to reflect the relationship between memory, history and image and the impact of new technologies on ways of seeing and reading. The memory and the subsequent parallel drawn by Kracauer between philosophy and history, art and photography/film will be addressed, taking into account the current situation of the digital age and mobility where television is seen, little by little, as a mere support. From the explosion of the American TV series True Detective to the English Black Mirror, the article seeks to re-read the Cult of Distraction, published in the Frankfurter Zeitung in the mid-20s of the last century. Relations between the historian of Kracauer and the main character of Nooteboom’s book also come to the foreground in Wim Wenders' angels, men with wings, historical literary monsters.