The Matrix resurrected

Theoretical approaches to education and retroactive continuity

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of flexible narrative structures as potentials for educational transformation using the example of the 2021 film Matrix Resurrections, a sequel to the Wachowski sisters' successful Matrix trilogy (1999-2003). At the intersection of film studies and educational studies in the context of Strukturale Medienbildung (translatable as Structural Media Education), it specifically addresses the narrative technique of retroactively reinterpreting narrative, which Friedenthal refers to as Retroactive Continuity. The argument focuses on how the depicted love affair of the protagonists is re-contextualized by the fourth film and how distance can be created for viewers to their own reception experience of the earlier films which can lead to transformative learning processes called Bildung in the German tradition.