Thinking about the Present and Dreaming about the Past: The Politics and History in Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project
Pensando el presente y soñando el pasado: la política y la historia en el Proyecto de los pasajes de Walter Benjamin
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This article explores Walter Benjamin’s political and historical proposals that emerge from his Arcades Project. The essay outlines Benjamin’s criticism of historicism and presents his proposal of historical interpretation as a dream taking into account the dialectic relationship between the past and the political possibilities of the future. It is argued that the element of urgency, which implies a Benjaminian vision attached to a democratic ethos, provides us with a progressive political proposal and vision, without falling into historicist teleologies.
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