The subjects of The Arcades Project are easily discerned from Benjamin’s exposes and the titles of the convolutes. What is not easily discerned is Benjamin’s organization of the texts within each subject.
In The Arcades Project, Benjamin is interested in displaying the “phantasmagoria” that presents itself within the material culture emerging in Paris during the 19th century. That is, the history of this time can be represented by “an endless series of facts congealed in the form of things” (Benjamin, 14). In this case, the phantasmagoria is presented in the form of texts: either excerpts from texts written about Paris in the 19th century (either within or outside of the time period) or reflections from Benjamin.
This is what Benjamin aspires to do, but the simplicity of such a description becomes easily convoluted when we consider how Benjamin approaches each subject. Perhaps the subjects can act as a phantasmagoria: a sequence of ideas, influences, and characters that shaped the 19th century. But what about the contents of each subject?
The beginning to most of the convolute sections (Baudelaire is an exception: J, 228) begin with a reflection by Benjamin that frames the remaining contents of the convolute (can I drop the s?) For instance, opening up to the first page, we are greeted, after some poems about the arcades, by Benjamin’s explanation of the character of the arcades themselves: “[…]Lining both sides of these corridors, which get their light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the arcade is a city, a world in miniature[…]” (Benjamin, 31).
As I read on I kept this passage in mind. Benjamin lays out excerpt upon excerpt of the contents of the arcades (magazines, specialties, architecture, etc.) and reflects as he goes (“Arcades as origin of department stores? Which of the magasins named above were located in arcades?” [Benjamin, 37]). I couldn’t help thinking that this convolute functioned like an arcade. There were all sorts of interesting texts to ponder and think about. It was as if I was walking along store fronts myself, reading these texts, while Benjamin walked beside me and commented.
I thought that, maybe, every convolute would emulate the experience of the arcade. But this was not the case.
Each new convolute seems to present its subject as an archive in itself, experienced according to the subject.
In the Convolute, On the Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Progress we are given far more reflections by Benjamin and the convolute begins with a telling quote: “In the fields with which we are concerned knowledge comes only in lightning flashes. The text is the long roll of thunder that follows” (Benjamin, 456).
Here, we have another way of thinking about this collection. It is no longer a marketplace to pause over and peruse, but lightning flashes that illuminate.
In the convolute Dream City and Dream House, Dreams of the Future, Anthropological Nihilism, Jung, we have an archive that is collected in the form of “awakenings”.
“Awakening as a graduated process that goes on in the life of the individual as in the life of generations […] Whereas the education of earlier generations explained these dreams for them in terms of tradition, of religious doctrine, present-day education simply amounts to the distraction of children […] What follows here is an experiment in the technique of awakening. An attempt to become aware of the dialectical […] turn of remembrance” (Benjamin, 388).
These awakenings present in the form of sudden realizations, questions that oppose conventional thought, and inquiry that allows a dialectical process to engage with the past. This convolute not only depicts the “awakenings”, but also the psychological theories that would explain how these awakenings occur. I thought of Paris lying on a couch while a Freudian or Jungian figure took down notes describing their dream pathology.
(couldn’t get image on here, but here’s a link)
As I read over this, it feels like I’m reaching. These metaphors could simply be different ways of describing the same process. I haven’t read the entire book. Maybe I’m creating more than I’m interpreting.
But, if you follow me, The Arcades Project, then, is not only an archive of subjects influencing the culture of Paris in the 19th century, but also an archive of archives; an archive on archiving a historical period; an archive of the different ways of depicting Benjamin’s “phantasmagoria”.
I’m probably barely grasping this concept, but I’ll ask some questions anyway…why do this? Why depict the variety of ways that history, even the phantasmagorical representation of history, can be archived? Does this complicate any conventional definition of history and archives? How does a partial reading affect our interpretation of this archive’s methods? Would I be as hesitant about my conclusion if I could somehow read the text in its totality? Can this be read in its totality?
Could each convolute be a representation of a different ideological perspective?
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