(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

THE PASSAGEN-WERK REVISITED
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of Paris”), “Fourier,” “die Photographie” (“Photography”), or “die Börse
Wirtschaftsgeschichte” (“The Stock Exchange Economic History”). These
serve as headings, under which an abundance of material is inventoried.
Of these Convolute K, entitled “Traumstadt und Traumhaus, Zukunftsträume,
anthropolog(ischer) Nihilism(us), Jung” (“Dream City and
Dream House, Dreams of the Future, Anthropological Nihilism, Jung”),
and Convolute N, with the rubric “Erkenntnistheoretisches, Theorie des
Fortschritts” (“On the Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Progress”), have
been singled out by Benjamin scholars, since both provide insight into
Benjamin’s methodological considerations and epistemic strategies. In
addition to the folders there are two exposés, one in German, dated 1935,
and another, in French, that was penned as a grant proposal for Theodor
W. Adorno’s and Max Horkheimer’s Institute for Social Research in
1939. The material in the six sections of the exposés has been arranged
along dual premises, that is, by linking historical personages with architectural
or topographical topoi: “Fourier oder die Passagen” (Fourier, or
the Arcades), “Daguerre oder die Panoramen” (Daguerre, or the Panoramas),
“Grandville oder die Weltausstellungen” (Grandville, or the World
Exhibitions), “Louis Philippe oder das Interieur” (Louis Philippe, or the
Interior), “Baudelaire oder die Straßen von Paris” (“Baudelaire, or the
Streets of Paris”), and “Hausmann oder die Barrikaden” (Haussmann,
or the Barricades). Although beneficial for assessing the scale of the final
work, they can only be compared to “girders” or scaffolding, since the
range of details encompassed in the individual convolutes exceeds the
factors spelled out in the exposés. It has been surmised that the wealth
of material collated includes fundamental perspectives that Benjamin
might well have incorporated into the final monograph. Among these are
a reconsideration of the ideological significance that Karl Marx had for
nineteenth-century capitalist paradigms; a reassessment of Victor Hugo’s
importance for the history of French architecture; and possibly observations
about the effects lights and artificial illumination have on the optical
aesthetics of municipal spaces as theaters of modernity. 2
The entries in the first convolute, “Arcades, Magasins de Nouveautés,
Sales Clerks,” ponder the deeper meaning of the architectural marvels
that enjoyed their heyday in the period between 1822 and 1840. Seeing
them as allegories or monads of cultural memory, Benjamin imbues the
arcades with temporal significance, calling them the “locus classicus für
die Darstellung der Passagen, denn aus ihr entspinnen sich nicht allein die
divagations über den Flaneur und das Wetter, sondern auch was über die
Bauweise der Passagen in wirtschaftlicher und architektonischer Hinsicht
zu sagen ist, könnte hier seine Stelle finden” (“locus classicus for the presentation
of the arcades; for not only do the divagations on the flâneur
and the weather develop out of it, but also what there is to be said about
the construction of the passages, in an economical and architectural vein,