Representations of Autobiographical Memory in the Soundtrack of the Film Aftersun (2022)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze two scenes from the film Aftersun (2022), directed by Charlotte Wells, to explore the relationship between autobiographic memory and media, especially with regard to the use of pop songs and sound design in the film's soundtrack. If, on the one hand, the use of famous songs contributes to triggering the cultural memory of spectators, on the other hand, the use of sound effects on the original phonograms suggests an estrangement and a detachment that illustrate the protagonist's relationship with the portrayed memories and metaphorize the functioning of the memory flow itself. In order to that, we will use authors who deal with the concepts of collective memory (Halbwachs, 1990), autobiographical report (Sarlo, 2007; Starobinski, 1971) and pop songs as memory objects (Frith, 2001).