(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

LITERATURE AS THE MEDIUM OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY
111
Opitz und Erdmut Wizisla (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000), 1:417, n. 28.
The upshot is that of the 86 manuscript pages of the construction plan extant,
only 16 pages, or approximately 20%, have appeared in print.
4
Pierre Nora, Zwischen Geschichte und Gedächtnis (Berlin: Wagenbach, 1990), 11.
5
This term is used by Benjamin in its negative connotation, such as it appears
in Karl Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte: “Alongside decayed
roués with dubious means of subsistence and of dubious origin, alongside ruined
and adventurous offshoots of the bourgeoisie, were vagabonds, discharged soldiers,
discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, rogues, mountebanks, lazzaroni,
pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, marquereaus, brothel keepers, porters, literati,
organ-grinders, knife grinders, tinkers, beggars — in short, the whole indefinite,
disintegrated mass, thrown hither and thither, which the French term la bohème”
(See Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte [London: Lawrence
& Wishart, 1984], 65; Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte, in Karl Marx,
Friedrich Engels, Studienausgabe IV [Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1966], 77). The
virtuoso play on language that Marx summons to discredit the constituents of the
“Society of 10 December” is also valid for Napoleon III., whom he denounces as
the “chief of the lumpenproletariat,” which is a perspective that Benjamin adopted.
6
Benjamin writes: “In ihm [Blanqui] und seinen Genossen sah Marx im Rückblick
auf die Junirevolution‚ die ‘wirklichen Führer der proletarischen Partei.’
Man kann sich von dem revolutionären Prestige, das Blanqui damals besessen und
bis zu seinem Tod bewahrt hat, schwerlich einen zu hohen Begriff machen” (GS
I.2:518; “He [Blanqui] and his associates, claimed Marx in his analysis of the June
Insurrection, were the ‘true leaders of the proletarian party.’ It is hardly possible
to overestimate the revolutionary prestige which Blanqui possessed at that time
and preserved up to his death,” SW 4:6). In his essay The Eighteenth Brumaire
of Louis Bonaparte, to which Benjamin is referring here, Marx emphasizes the
impotence of the proletarian leader: “As is known, May 15 had no other result
save that of removing Blanqui and his comrades, that is, the real leaders of the
proletarian party, from the public stage for the entire duration of the cycle we are
considering.” See Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 17.
7
Max Horkheimer und Herbert Marcuse, “Philosophie und kritische Theorie,”
in Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 6.3 (1937) :629–30.
8
This seems to be the meaning of the cryptic motto that Benjamin derives from
Pierre Ronsard’s “Hymne an den Tod” (“Hymn to Death”) and sets at the beginning
of Convolute J dedicated to Baudelaire in the Arcades Project: “For it pleases
me, all for your sake, to row / My own oars here on my own sea, / And to soar
heavenward by a strange avenue, / Singing you the unsung praises of Death” (AP
229; see GB 6:125.
9
Walter Benjamin, “Kapitalismus als Religion” (GB 6:100; “Capitalism as Religion,”
SW 1:289). See “Politik, Ökonomie und Religion im Zeitalter der Globalisierung,”
in Theologie und Politik, ed. Bernd Witte and Mauro Ponzi (Berlin:
Erich Schmidt Verlag 2003), 9–19.
10
Benjamin’s use of this term can be traced back to Nietzsche, who considered
suicide to be an “act of nihilism” (see GS I.2:578, note).
11
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, 18.