Keywords
anthropological materialism
dialectics
dialectical image
city
collective memory
messianism
How to Cite
Abstract
In his methodology as well as his political thought Benjamin remains
faithful to the principle to proceed “always radically, never consistently”. Therefore,
the greatest challenge for a contemporary city researcher inspired by Benjamin is to
operationalise his materialist methodology. Benjamin’s anthropological materialism
cannot be reached within the fixed limits of any discipline, but rather places itself
“on the crossroads of magic and positivism” (Adorno); the dialectical image is not
a tool of his methodology but its culminating point where positivism turns to magic.
To reach this point, Benjamin conducts perceptive and analytical experiments that
can be treated as dialectical études, exercises in seeing. The paper examines some of
these techniques, exploring their philosophical context and testing them on a contemporary
example: the Ernst-Thälmann-Monument in Berlin.
References
Adorno, T.W., W. Benjamin 1994. Briefwechsel 1928-1940. Frankfurt.
Benjamin, W. 1991. Gesammelte Schriften. Frankfurt.
Benjamin, W. 1997. Gesammelte Briefe. Frankfurt.
Benjamin, W. 2005. Pasaże. Kraków.
Berdet. M. ,,Eight Thesis on Phantasmagoria.”
http://anthropologicalmaterialism.hypotheses.org/611/.
Berdet, M. ,,Seven Short Temporary Statements on Anthropological Materialism.” http:// anthropologicalmaterialism.hypotheses.org/822/.
Berdet, M. ,,What is Anthropological Materialism?” http://anthropologicalmaterialism.hypotheses.org/644/.
Buck-Morss, S. 1989. The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project. London.
Khatib, S. ,,Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin and the Spectre of the Messianic: Is There a Materialist Theory of Time?” http://hypotheses.org/12052/.
Osborne, P. 2005. ,,Quasi-messianic Interruption.” W Walter Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory, t. 1. New York.
Saunders, P. 2010. ,,The Ghosts of Lenin, Thalmann and Marx in the Post-Socialist Cityscape.” German Life and Letters 63.
Soost, H. 2001. ,,Gas und Koks, Ruß und Staub.” Berlinische Monatsschrift 4.
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