ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book addresses theories of history – broadly defined – in the work of Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Paul de Man and Sigmund Freud. It examines the material and temporal ordering of force in Freud's discussion of the psyche, shows how psychoanalysis both disables and is enabled by history. The book explores the themes of testimony and violence in relation to Calling the Ghosts, a film which explores the lives of two female survivors of the Omarska camp in Bosnia. It discusses the relation between film and the temporalities of memory establishes a theoretical model, in which the cinematic representation of the past can allow a deferred act of psychical revision to occur. The book analyzes the text in relation to the complex temporality of Nachtraglichkeit.
