Unimaginable Variations: Christian Responsibility in the Cinema of Broken Identity

ISSN： 0269-1205

Source： Literature and Theology, Vol.18, Iss.3, 2004-09, pp. : 321-350

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Abstract

This paper addresses the combination of theology and humanism by reflecting on Christian identity. Beginning with Paul Ricoeur's theory of fiction as a laboratory of ‘imaginative variations’ on the possibilities of ethical selfhood, I ask: if the world projected by the Christian scriptures overturns human possibilities, what happens to the Christian self's ethical responsibility' I analyse the motion pictures Fight Club, Memento, and The Matrix to interpret extreme cases or ‘unimaginable variations’ on the theme of conversion among broken, fragmented, and manipulated selves. I argue that The Matrix presents a form of conversion most conducive to fulfilling ethical responsibility.