The Arcades Project - Operi
The Arcades Project - Operi The Arcades Project - Operi
the immersion of what has been into layers of dreams, represented not an end in itself for the Passagen- mrkJ but rather its methodological anangemel1t, a kind of experimental setup, The nineteenth century is the dream we must wake up from; it is a nightmare that will weigh on the present as long as its spell remains unbroken. According to Benjannl1, the images of dreaming and awakening from the dream are related as expression is related to interpretation. He hoped that the images, once interpreted, would dissolve the spelL Be annn' s concept of awakening means the "genuine liberation from an epoch" (hO,3), in the double sense of Hegel's Alifhebung: the nineteenth century would be transcended in that it would be preserved, "rescued" for the present. Benjamin defines "the new, the dialectical method of doing history" in these words: "with the intensity of a dreaIn, to pass through what has been (dar Geweselle), in order to experience the present as the waking world to which the dream refers" (F°,6). TIlls concept is based on a mystical conception of Instory that Benjamin was never to abandon, not even in his late theses "On the Concept of History?' Every present ought to be synchronic with certain moments of history, just as every past becomes "legible" only in a certain epoch-"namely, the one in which humanity, nlbbing its eyes, recognizes just this particular dream unage as such. It is at this moment that the historian takes up , , . the task of dream interpretation" (N4,1), Tow3Td this end, we need not a dragging of the past UltO the mythological, but, on the contrary, a "dissolution of 'mythology' Ul the space of history" (H°,l7). Benjamin demanded a "concrete, materialist meditation on what is nearest" (das Ndc/zste); he was interested "only in the presentation of what relates to us, what conditions us" (CO ,5). In this way the Instorian should no longer try to enter the past; radler, he should allow the past to enter his life. A "pathos of nearness" should replace the vanishing "empathy" (1°,2). For the historian, past objects and events would not then be fixed data, an unchangeable given, because dialectical thinking "ransacks them, revolutionizes them, turns them upside down" (D°,4); this is what must be accomplished by awakening from the dream of the nineteenth century. That is why for Belamin the "effort to awaken from a dream" represents "the best example of dialectical reversal" (D°,7), TIle key to what may have been Benjamin's intention while working on the first phase of the PasJtlgen-Werk may be found Ul the sentence, "Capitalism was a natural phenomenon with which a new dream-filled sleep came over Europe, and, through it, a reactivation of mytincal forces" (KIa,8), Benjamin shares his project ) the desire to ulVestigate capitalism, with historical materialism, from which he may well have appropriated the project in the [rrst place. But the concepts he uses to define capitalism-nature, dream, and mythoriginate from the terminology of his ovvI1 metaphysically and theologically inspired thought. 'nle key concepts of the young Benjamin's philosophy of history center around a critique of myth as the ordained heteronomous ) which kept man banished Ul dumb dependence throughout prehistory aIld which has since survived in the most dissimilar forms, both as unmediated violence and in bourgeois jurisprudence. H The critique of capitalism in the first Arcades sketch remaulS a critique of myth, sUlCe in it the nineteenth century appears as a domain where "only madness has reigned until now." "But ) )) Benjannll adds, "every ground must at some point have been turned over by reason, must have been cleared of the undergrowth of delusion and myth. This is to be accomplished here for the tenain of the nineteenth century" (Go,13). His interpretation recognizes forms still unlnstorical, still unprisoned by myth, forms that are only preparing dlemselves, in such an interpretation, to awaken from myth and to take away its power. Benjamin identifies them as the dominant forms of consciousness and the imagery of incipient high capitalism: the "sensation of the newest and most modern,)) as well as the
image of the "eternal retmn of the same"-both are "dream formations of events," dreamed by a collective that "knows no history" (MO,14). He speaks in direct theological terms in his interpretation of the modern as "the time of hell" : What matters here is that the face of the world, the colossal head, precisely in what is newest never itself changes-that this "newesC' remains in all respects the same. This constitutes the eternity of hell and the sadisCs delight in irmovation. To determine the totality of traits which derme this "modernity" is to represent hell, (Go,17) Since it is a "commentary on a reality," which sinks into the historical and interprets it as it would a text, theology was called upon to provide the "scientific mainstay" of the Passagen-Werk (0°,9), though at the same time politics was to retain its "primacy over history" (hO ,2). At the time of the first Arcades sketch, Benjamin was concerned less with a mediation of theological and political categories than with their identity. In this he was very much like Emst Bloch in Geist der Utopie (Spirit of Utopia), which he explicitly took as his model. He repeatedly had recourse to Blochian concepts to characterize his own intentions, as in " fashion inheres in the darkness of dle lived moment, but in the collective darkness" (O°,ll).Just as for Bloch the experiencing individual has not yet achieved mastery over himself at the moment of experiencing, for Benjamin the historical phenomena remain opaque, unilluminated for the dreaming collective. In Bloch's opinion, individual experience is always experience of the immediate past; in the same way, Berarnin's interpretation of the present refers to the recent past: action in the present means awakening from the dream of history, an "explosion" of what has been, a revolutionary Ulrn. He was convinced that "the whole set of issues with which this project is concerned" would be "illuminated in the process of the proletariaes becoming conscious of itself" (0° ,68). He did not hesitate to interpret these facts as part of the preparation for the proletarian revolution. "The dialectical penetration and aCUlalization of former contexts puts the truth of all present action to the test" (0°,5). It is not the action itself but its theory that is at stake here. TIus defines the task of the historian as " rescuing" the past or, as BeIamin formulated it with another concept taken from Bloch, "awakening a not-yetconscious knowledge of what has been)) (H°,17) by applying the "theory of not-yetconscious knowing ... to the collective in its various epochs" (0°,50). At this stage, Bela111in conceived of the Passagen-Werk as a mystical reconstitution: dialectical thinking had the task of separating the future-laden, "positive" element from the backward "negative" element, after which I'a new partition had to be applied to this initially excluded, negative component so that, by a displacement of the angle of vision ... , a positive element emerges anew in it too-something different from that previously signified. And so on, ad infinitum, until the entire past is brought into the present in a historical apocatastasis" (Nla,3). In this way, the nineteenth century should be brought into the present within the Passagen-l#rk. Belamin did not think revolutionary praxis should be allowed at any lesser price. For him revolution was, in its lughest fonn, a liberation of the past, which had to demonstrate " the indestructibility of the highest life in all things" (0°,1). At the end of the 1920s, theology and communism converged in Benjal1un's thought. TIle metaphysical, lustorical-philosophical, and theological sources that had nurtured both his esoteric early writings and his great aesthetic works until Ui:prung des deutJcllell TrauersjJie/s (Origin of the German Trauerspiel) were still flowing and would also nurture dle Passagen-Werk. '"TIle Passagen-Werk was supposed to become all of that, and it becaIne none of that-to echo a famous phrase of Belamin's (DO,6). He intclTupted work in the fall of 1929 for
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- Page 908 and 909: Expose of 1935, Early Version The e
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- Page 970 and 971: Translators' Notes Abbreviations GS
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image of the "eternal retmn of the same"-both are "dream formations of events,"<br />
dreamed by a collective that "knows no history" (MO,14). He speaks in direct theological<br />
terms in his interpretation of the modern as "the time of hell" :<br />
What matters here is that the face of the world, the colossal head, precisely in what<br />
is newest never itself changes-that this "newesC' remains in all respects the same.<br />
This constitutes the eternity of hell and the sadisCs delight in irmovation. To determine<br />
the totality of traits which derme this "modernity" is to represent hell, (Go,17)<br />
Since it is a "commentary on a reality," which sinks into the historical and interprets it as<br />
it would a text, theology was called upon to provide the "scientific mainstay" of the<br />
Passagen-Werk (0°,9), though at the same time politics was to retain its "primacy over<br />
history" (hO ,2). At the time of the first <strong>Arcades</strong> sketch, Benjamin was concerned less with a<br />
mediation of theological and political categories than with their identity. In this he was<br />
very much like Emst Bloch in Geist der Utopie (Spirit of Utopia), which he explicitly took<br />
as his model. He repeatedly had recourse to Blochian concepts to characterize his own<br />
intentions, as in " fashion inheres in the darkness of dle lived moment, but in the collective<br />
darkness" (O°,ll).Just as for Bloch the experiencing individual has not yet achieved<br />
mastery over himself at the moment of experiencing, for Benjamin the historical phenomena<br />
remain opaque, unilluminated for the dreaming collective. In Bloch's opinion, individual<br />
experience is always experience of the immediate past; in the same way,<br />
Berarnin's interpretation of the present refers to the recent past: action in the present<br />
means awakening from the dream of history, an "explosion" of what has been, a revolutionary<br />
Ulrn. He was convinced that "the whole set of issues with which this project is<br />
concerned" would be "illuminated in the process of the proletariaes becoming conscious<br />
of itself" (0° ,68). He did not hesitate to interpret these facts as part of the preparation for<br />
the proletarian revolution. "<strong>The</strong> dialectical penetration and aCUlalization of former contexts<br />
puts the truth of all present action to the test" (0°,5). It is not the action itself but its<br />
theory that is at stake here. TIus defines the task of the historian as " rescuing" the past or,<br />
as BeIamin formulated it with another concept taken from Bloch, "awakening a not-yetconscious<br />
knowledge of what has been)) (H°,17) by applying the "theory of not-yetconscious<br />
knowing ... to the collective in its various epochs" (0°,50). At this stage,<br />
Bela111in conceived of the Passagen-Werk as a mystical reconstitution: dialectical thinking<br />
had the task of separating the future-laden, "positive" element from the backward "negative"<br />
element, after which I'a new partition had to be applied to this initially excluded,<br />
negative component so that, by a displacement of the angle of vision ... , a positive<br />
element emerges anew in it too-something different from that previously signified. And<br />
so on, ad infinitum, until the entire past is brought into the present in a historical apocatastasis"<br />
(Nla,3). In this way, the nineteenth century should be brought into the present<br />
within the Passagen-l#rk. Belamin did not think revolutionary praxis should be allowed<br />
at any lesser price. For him revolution was, in its lughest fonn, a liberation of the past,<br />
which had to demonstrate " the indestructibility of the highest life in all things" (0°,1). At<br />
the end of the 1920s, theology and communism converged in Benjal1un's thought. TIle<br />
metaphysical, lustorical-philosophical, and theological sources that had nurtured both his<br />
esoteric early writings and his great aesthetic works until Ui:prung des deutJcllell TrauersjJie/s<br />
(Origin of the German Trauerspiel) were still flowing and would also nurture dle<br />
Passagen-Werk.<br />
'"TIle Passagen-Werk was supposed to become all of that, and it becaIne none of that-to<br />
echo a famous phrase of Belamin's (DO,6). He intclTupted work in the fall of 1929 for
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