The Arcades Project - Operi

If the object of history is to be blasted out of the continuum of historical succes­
sion, that is because its mouadological structure demands it. This structure first
comes to light in the exh'acted object itself. And it does so in the form of the
historical confrontation that makes up the interior (and, as it were, the bowels) of
the historical object, and into which all the forces and interests of history enter on
a reduced scale. It is owing to this monadological structure that the historical
object finds represented in its interior its own fore-history and after-history.
(Thus, for example, the fore-history of Baudelaire, as educed by current scholarship,
resides in allegory; his after-history, inJugendstil.) [NIO,3]
Forming the basis of the confrontation with conventional historiography and
"enshrinement" IS the polemic against empathy (Grillparzer, Fustel de Coulanges).
[NIO,4]
The Saint-Simonian Barrault distinguishes between epoques organiques and epoques
cn'tiques. The derogation of the critical spirit begins directly
after the victory of the bourgeoisie in theJuly Revolution. [NIO,5]
The destructive or critical momentum of materialist historiography is registered
in that blasting of historical continuity with which the historical object first consti­
tutes itself. In fact, an object of history cannot be targeted at all within the
continuous elapse of history. And so, from time immemorial, historical narration
has simply picked out an object from this continuous succession. But it has done
so without foundation, as an expedient; and its first thought was then always to
reinsert the object into the continuum, which it would create anew tluough
empathy. Materialist historiography does not choose its objects arbitrarily. It
does not fasten on them but rather springs them loose from the order of successian.
Its provisions are more extensive, its occurrences more essential. [NIOa,l]
[For] the destructive momentmn in materialist historiography is to be conceived
as the reaction to a constellation of dangers, which tlueatens both the burden of
tradition and those who receive it. It is this constellation of dangers which the
materialist presentation of history comes to engage. In this constellation is com­
prised its actuality; against its tlueat, it must prove its presence of mind. Such a
presentation of history has as goal to pass, as Engels puts it, "beyond the sphere
of thought!"" [NIOa,2]
To thinking belongs the movement as well as the arrest of thoughts. Where
tlunking comes to a standstill in a constellation saturated with tensions-there
the dialectical image appears. It is the caesura in the movement of thought. Its
position is naturally not an arbitrary one. It is to be found, in a word, where the
tension between dialectical opposites is greatest. Hence, the object constructed in
the materialist presentation of history is itself the dialectical image. Tbe latter is
identical with the historical object; it justifies its violent expulsion from the continuum
of historical process. [NIOa,3]