The Arcades Project - Operi

trans. Manfred R. Jacobson and Evelyn M. Jacobson (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1994). Subsequent references to the Corf"(sj)ondence will appear in the text
as "Letters," For a complete compilation of Benjamin's statements in letters about the
Pa.rsagen-Werk (within the limits of available COlTcspondence), see Belamin, Gesammelte
Scltrifien, vol. 5 (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1982), pp. 1081-1183 (mmotations by
Rolf Tiedemann). Subsequent references to the Gesarnmelte Sc!uiflen will appear in the
text in parentheses, volume number followed by page number-e.g., "5:1063."
3. Sec Tlte Correspondence rf U1alter Benjamin and Gerslwm Sclwiem, 1932-1940, trans.
Gary Smith and Andre Lefevere (New York: Schocken, 1989), p. 121. Subsequent
references to this work will appear in the text as "Scholem Letters."
4. Adorno, PriJl1ls, p. 239.
5. See Rolf Tiedemann, Dialekti!i im Stillstand (Frm1kfurt: Suhrkamp, 1983), pp. 190-
191, n. I8a, on the current legend of a "rearrangement" of the "Aufzeichnungen uncI
Materialien" in the Passagen-Werk.
6. According to Adorno, Benjam:in's intention was "to eliminate all overt commentary
and to have the meanings emerge solely through a shock-like montage of the material.
... His magnum opus, the crowning of his antisubjectivism, was to consist solely
of citations" (Adorno, Pnsms) 239). "nlOugh this thought may seem typical of Benjamin,
I an]. convinced that Berarnin did not intend to work in that fashion. There is
no remark in the letters attesting to this. Adorno supports his position with two
entries from the Passagen-Werk itself (see Nl,10 and Nla,8), which can hardly be
interpreted in that way. One of these already turned up in the "First Sketchesll of 1928
or 1929 (see 0°,36), at a time when Belamin stated that he was still considering an
essay, which he had begun in the Early Draftsll-by no means, however, in the form
of a montage of quotations.
7. "One-Way Street," in Benjamin, Selected Writings} Vol. 1: 1913-1926 (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), p. 466. Subsequent references to the Selected
Writillg:r will appear in the text as SW
8. This had been preceded by the plan-wbich probably did not last long-to collaborate
-with Franz Hessel on an article about arcades. See 5:1341.
9. "Surrealism," in Benjamin, Selected Writings} Vol. 2: 1927-1934 (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 210.
10. Here and in what follows, references to the first and second sketch are in the same
manner that Benjamin referred to them in his letter to Gretel Adorno of August 16 )
1935: merely in quotation marks, so to speak. No single text is meant by "sketch"; the
"second sketch,ll especially, does not denote the 1935 expose. Benjamin had in mind
the concept of the work, such as it can be inferred from an interpretation of the
totality of the notes from both stages of his project.
11. See Hennann Schweppenhiuser, "Propaedeutics of Profane Illumination," in Oil [falter
Benjamin: Critical Er;says and Recollectiorls) ed. Gary Smith (Cmnbridge: Mass.:
MIT Press, 1988), pp. 33-50.
12. See mainly "On the Program of the Coming Philosophy," Philosoj)hical Forum 15, 1-2
(Fall-Winter 1983-1984), pp. 41-51, now in SW; 1:100-110; this citation originates
from an early fragment "Dber die Walnnehmung;' 6:33-38 (SW; 1:93-96).
13. See "Doctrine of the SiInilar," in SV'f!; 2:694-698; and "On the Mimetic Faculty," SV'f!;
2:720-722. One of the latest texts in the "First Sketches" to the Passagen-U1erk seems
to be a germinating cell of Benjamin ) s theory of mimesis (see 5:1038; ,24).
14,. See Rolf Tiedemann, Studien zitr Philo.wj)/tie T1!alter BeryamiuJ) 2nd ed. (Frankfurt:
Suhrkamp, 1973), pp. 76-77, 98-99.
15. In the 4'First Sketches;' in which economic categories are used either metaphysically