•• Personal Identity and Dystopian Film Worlds (Prof. García-Noblejas)
To speak of “Personal Identity and Dystopian Film Worlds” means to speak of “reference” in cinematic fiction and of the reception and personal appropriation – not only intellectual – of that fiction. To put it briefly, I will speak of the personal “refiguration” of fictions according to the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, making reference to three films that depict dystopian worlds: Blade Runner (R. Scott, 1982), Brazil (T. Gilliam, 1985), and The Truman Show (P. Weir, 1998).
I consider the possible worlds in these films as “virtual”, not because they are dystopian or close to science-fiction, but rather for being different from the “real” world in which we live, and for allowing us to gain a better understanding of ourselves and our own worlds. They are virtual because in order to talk about their characters, plots and actions we adopt – in the words of W. Kneale – the “de dicto” modality; whereas to speak of ourselves as persons we adopt the “de re” modality in the real worlds in which we interact with such fictions when they reach us.
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