CINEMA AS COUNTER-ARCHIVE IN RIDLEY SCOTT’S THE LAST DUEL: HISTORICAL SILENCE AND ETHICAL MEMORY

Authors : Serap Sarıbaş

Pages : 1116-1129

Doi:10.52122/nisantasisbd.1748790

View : 37 | Download : 72

Publication Date : 2025-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study discusses the formal and ethical dimensions of historical representation in cinema, the structural limits of gendered testimony, and the epistemological functions of visual narrative through Ridley Scott’s film The Last Duel (2021). The film, based on three different narrative perspectives, argues that historical truth is not fixed but a process constructed within power relations. The study approaches historiography, feminist epistemology, archival theory, and theories of testimony and trauma within an interdisciplinary theoretical framework. The positioning of Marguerite de Carrouges’ narrative at the end reveals the unstable and marginalized position of the female subject and highlights testimony as a performative act of risk. The film shifts the viewer from a passive position to a space of ethical responsibility; it interrogates the relationship between visual representation, testimony, memory, and justice. Cinema, in this sense, is addressed not merely as a medium of narration but as a transformative site of knowledge production. The study problematizes the historical film’s claim to truth and analyzes how such narratives may generate epistemic violence or ethical engagement. The Last Duel thus offers not only a depiction of the past but an ethical cinematic experience that engages with the limits of representation and the burden of witnessing.
Keywords : Postmodern tarihsel film, arşiv kuramı, temsilin krizi, epistemik şiddet, Son Düello

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