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Abstract
What literary project can be deciphered from the non-mimetic representation of urban space in Walter Benjamin's One-Way Street? The book can be read as a course that attempts to make speak dialectical images found among the signs and sites of daily urban life in the first third of the twentieth century. The prominence of dreams already in the early pages of One-Way Street, together with dialectical images whose speech brings historical truth to consciousness, shows that Benjamin's city tour is a (hi)story of awakening. Within this context, the images of public places represent signs of a collective unconscious that are to be deciphered in order to overcome the dream-like state in which they are perceived. By aiming to overcome a state in which images regulate daily life and apperception in public space, Benjamin's project remains irreducibly political. Instead of following a mimetic approach, Benjamin undermines the authority of unconscious images within a writing process that describes the trajectory of awakening. This essay uncovers Benjamin's narrative strategy for pursuing the dynamic of literary imagination for an ultimately iconoclastic effect.
Notes
“Die Geschichte des Traumes bleibt noch zu schreiben.” Walter Benjamin, Traumkitsch, in Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. II, 2, ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhäuser (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991), 620–22, see 620. Gesammelte Schriften will hereafter be cited as GS with volume and page number.
Benjamin, Gesammelte Briefe, Vol. II, ed. Christoph Gödde and Henri Lonitz (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1996), 510. Hereafter cited as GB with volume and page number.
The first mention of the ultimate title occurs in a letter to Sigfried Kracauer from July 15, 1926. Cf. GB 3: 181. Beyond that, Benjamin continues to work on his manuscripts due to a delay that affects the publication date, which will finally be January 1928. In a letter from October 30, 1926, Benjamin writes to Hugo von Hofmannsthal: “Das Notizbuch [One-Way Street; author's note] zieht wohl oder übel seinen Gewinn aus der unbilligen Verzögerung seines Erscheinens und hat in Marseille und hier [Berlin; author's note] in sich aufgenommen” (GB 3: 208).
Cf. Benjamin, Einbahnstraße, in Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Vol. 8, ed. Detlev Schöttker and Steffen Haug (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2009), 7–78, see 11. Hereafter cited as WuN 8 with page number.
Among the explicit theses are Kaiserpanorama (even though the single passages are quite comprehensive, the numeric outline emphasizes the characteristic of theses.), Lehrmittel, Ankleben verboten!, and Nr. 13. Cf. WuN 8: 21–28, 31–32, 33–37.
The nine designated dreams appear under the headings Nr. 113 (therein: Souterrain, Vestibül, Speisesaal), Mexikanische Botschaft, Tiefbau-Arbeiten, Uhren und Goldwaren, Halteplatz für nicht mehr als 3 Droschken, Reiseandenken (therein: Himmel), and Wegen Umbau geschlossen! WuN 8: 12, 13, 17, 18, 28, 45, 46, 48, 53, 61.
See Martin Walser's commentary at the beginning of his afterword to Wolfang Bächler's dream journal: Wolfgang Bächler, Traumprotokolle: Ein Auskunftsbuch. Mit einem Nachwort von Martin Walser (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1978), 118.
Sigmund Freud, Die Handhabung der Traumdeutung in der Psychoanalyse (1911), in Studienausgabe. Supplementary Vol., Schriften zur Behandlungstechnik, ed. Alexander Mitscherlich, Angela Richards, and James Strachey (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 2000), 149–56; see 155.
See Benjamin's phrasing “Der Traum wartet heimlich auf das Erwachen […],” in GS 5: 492.
Heiner Weidmann: Erwachen/Traum, in Benjamins Begriffe, Vol. 1, ed. Michael Opitz and Erdmut Wizisla (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000), 341–62, see 343.
At this point, Benjamin's concept of the body of the collective is reminiscent of the opening lines in Georg Simmel's Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben: “Wo die Produkte des spezifisch modernen Lebens nach ihrer Innerlichkeit gefragt werden, sozusagen der Körper der Kultur nach seiner Seele […] wird die Antwort der Gleichung nachforschen müssen, die solche Gebilde zwischen den individuellen und den überindividuellen Inhalten des Lebens stiften, den Anpasssungen der Persönlichkeit, durch die sie sich mit den ihr äußeren Mächten abfindet.” Georg Simmel, Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben, in Gesamtausgabe, Bd. 7, ed. Rüdiger Kramme, Angela Rammstedt, and Otthein Rammstedt (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1995), 116–32, see 116.
The notion of the circular recurrence of the very same, “Der Kreislauf des ewig Selbigen,” corresponds to Freud's notion of dream symbolism. Although the dream symbols in question are very much based on Freud's own narrative—a narrative that might be regarded as a literary as well as historical precondition for Benjamin's One-Way Street and Arcades Project—that unfolds in Die Traumdeutung (cf. Freud, Die Traumdeutung, in Studienausgabe, Vol. II, 280–394), they are conceptualized as general variables. Hence, they could also be applied to collectives and are—as images—not necessarily linked to an individual pathology as such. Inasmuch as the well-trained psychoanalyst possesses knowledge about these symbols, a diagnosis would already be possible at the very beginning of a treatment. Nevertheless, Freud is not interested in deciphering symptoms in this generalizing sense as rapidly as possible. Rather, his method emphasizes the patient's process of becoming conscious over the course of psychoanalytical treatment, which in other terms means to help him to get rid of an authority that s/he cannot deal with consciously yet. Seemingly paradoxically, the dream symbolism still works as a reliable indicator within this context as Freud speaks of “confidence” in dream symbols. In the framework of psychoanalytical treatment, this confidence allows for deceleration and offers the psychoanalyst the opportunity not to analyze every patient's dream that is brought up in the limited time of each treatment session. Despite the increase of information with regard to the dream content recounted by a patient—and hence acceleration—the psychoanalyst can always trust in the assumption that nothing will escape him and remain in “gleichschwebende[r] Aufmerksamkeit.” Thus, the relation between dream symbols and gaining consciousness can be characterized as being dialectical. Cf. Freud, Die Handhabung der Traumdeutung in der Psychoanalyse (1911), 155. Furthermore: Freud, Ratschläge für den Arzt bei der psychoanalytischen Behandlung (1912), in Studienausgabe, Supplementary Vol., Schriften zur Behandlungstechnik, S. 169–80, see 173.
Cf. Weidmann, Erwachen/Traum, 347.
Just as the original cover design by Sasha Stone suggests, which was used for the first edition of One-Way Street in 1928. Cf. Gérard Raulet, “Einbahnstraße,” in Benjamin Handbuch. Leben—Werk—Wirkung, ed. Burkhardt Lindner (Stuttgart/Weimar: J. B. Metzler, 2006), 359–73, see S. 360ff.
Cf. Walter Benjamin Archiv (Ed.), Walter Benjamins Archive. Bilder, Texte und Zeichen (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2006), 229ff: “Benjamin verglich die Rätselbilder der Vorfahren mit der Merkwelt seiner Tage, den normierten Architekturen, den Schemata der Statistik, der Eindeutigkeit von Lichtreklame und Verkehrszeichen., Die Aktualitäten einer anderen Zeit schlugen sich an anderen Zeichen nieder.“ Benjamin las eine Auslage der Pariser Passagen als Rebus. […] Rätsel sind wie Bruchstücke nicht abgeschlossen, sie halten etwas offen, verlangen nach ihrem Gegenstück—der Lösung. Sie sind Schulen des, Denksports“, die dazu anregen, den Verstand zu üben, Muster zu verlassen und Begrenzungen zu sprengen.”
“Zu dieser Zeit entfiel in Deutschland auf 147 Einwohner ein Personenkraftwagen, hinzu kam der wachsende Anteil der Lastkraftwagen […]. Die Kommunalbehörden experimentierten mit den verschiedensten Straßentypen, um die gegensätzlichen Interessen von aktiven Verkehrsteilnehmern und Wohnbürgern auszugleichen. Hierzu gehörte die Anlage von Ausfall-, Ring- und Einbahnstraßen. Aber ihre vermehrte Einrichtung reizte den Motorverkehr nur noch mehr an, während die Vorteile für die städtischen Bewohner gering blieben. Die Zahl der Verkehrstoten und -verletzten spricht eine deutliche Sprache: Im Raum Groß-Berlin starben 1926 über 100 Personen, 1928 waren es über 200. Indessen stieg die Zahl der Verletzten von über 5.700 auf fast 12.000.” Ulrich Kluge, Die Weimarer Republik (Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2006), S. 240.
Cf. Benjamin's description of the symbol in Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels, in GS 1: 340.
Cf. Benjamin, Was ist das epische Theater? (1), in GS 2: 521. Within this text, Benjamin also writes about a spell (“einen Bannraum,” 520). This time, the spell refers to the illusionary character of what Brecht described as Aristotelian theatre (cf. Bertolt Brecht, Vergnügungstheater oder Lehrtheater?, in Große kommentierte Berliner und Frankfurter Ausgabe, Vol. 22, ed. Werner Hecht, Jan Knopf, Werner Mittenzwei, and Klaus-Detlef Müller (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1993), 106–16, which not only gave rise to an emphatic and hence manipulating mode of acting, but also to the so-called proscenium or picture frame stage (“Guckkastenbühne”) that was established from the Renaissance on and subsequently became the architecturally dominant stage model of any institutionalized theatre.
Emphasis added. The described receptivity of the reader resembles the agreement, which Benjamin mentions in his first essay on Brechts Epic Theatre: “Nur der ‘Einverstandene’ hat Chancen, die Welt zu ändern” (GS 2: 526).
Cf. Yuri M. Lotman's term “iconic rhetoric” in Yuri M. Lotman: Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture, trans. Ann Shukman (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990), 54–62. Also, the understanding of what is text in One-Way Street corresponds to Lotman's definition, namely, any cultural signifier.
Cf. Sigrid Weigel, Entstellte Ähnlichkeit: Walter Benjamins theoretische Schreibweise (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1997), 212.
Michel Foucault, Dream, Imagination and Existence, trans. Forrest Williams, in Michel Foucault and Ludwig Binswanger, Dream & Existence, ed. Keith Hoeller (Seattle, WA: Review of Existential Psychology and Psychiatry, 1986), 29–78, see 42.
Cf. ibid., 41ff.
At this point, Foucault follows the preconceived notion of many Freud critics, that is, the assumption of a predomination of determining images in Freud's definition of dreams. Although Freud, as mentioned earlier, continued a tradition of dream symbolism in his Traumdeutung, his analytical approach to dreams is defined as translation and hence as a textual practice. Furthermore, his whole vocabulary relates to literary if not poetic notions, as words like “Verdichtung” and “Verschiebung” clearly suggest. In this sense, Freud follows a model of (hi)storytelling and does not provide a collection of universally significant symbols. A view that would sympathize with the latter assumption would not only deny the elusive character of Die Traumdeutung itself, but also the impossibility to recreate prehistory. Cf. Freud, Die Traumdeutung, 284–351.
Cf. Foucault, Dream, Imagination and Existence, 43ff.
Ibid., 63 (emphasis added).
Cf. ibid., 68.
Ibid., 71.
Cf. ibid.
Cf. ibid., 36 as well as 63. The problem of Foucault's one-sided notion of Freud's dream theory is already expounded in annotation 59.
Cf. ibid., 71.
Cf. ibid., 72.
Foucault, Dream, Imagination and Existence, 73.
It is worth mentioning that the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi conducted the final realization of the stated perspective backdrop of the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza: “After [Palladio's] death, however, several factors contributed to a decision to change the stage design. In 1581, the academy decided to perform a Greek tragedy rather than an Italian pastoral as their first production in the new theater. This meant that the perspective backdrop had to be more imposing than the kind of landscape scene normally reserved for a pastoral. The academy also realized it needed more land to create a proper theater as well as a center for its meetings; consequently it petitioned the Vicentine council, receiving an extension of the site in January 1582. The additional land allowed for the construction of deep perspective scenes with palaces and temples, and Vicenzo Scamozzi was then brought into finish the theater. Scamozzi designed passageways that extend from the frons scenae, and to do this he enlarged the three principal openings of the stage and added two more in the wings. […] While Scamozzi's intervention did not greatly alter the original conception, it was based upon a view of theatrical perspective at variance with Palladio's. […] However Palladio's reconstruction of the Roman theater placed more emphasis on the frons scenae, with its orders of columns and statues, and treated the perspective scenes as modest painted backdrops. Given the limitations of the original site, Palladio's design would have included space for only a painted backdrop, but as the plans for the theater grew more ambitious, this would have seemed less satisfactory to the academicians and their new architect, Scamozzi. His steeply raked streets, with their ingeniously designed palaces and temples, create an illusion of vistas disappearing into the distance.” Bruce Boucher, Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time (New York and London: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2007), 252.
Cf. Anthony Vidler, Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture (Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, 2000), 86–89.
David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1990), 265.
See the chapter on time–space compression in Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 260–83.
Cf. Simmel, Die Großstädte und das Geistesleben, 117.
Cf. Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith (Malden: Blackwell Publishing), 26–67.
Vidler, Warped Space, 86.
Boucher, Andrea Palladio: The Architect in His Time, 210.
Cf. Andrea Palladio, The Four Books on Architecture, trans. Robert Tavernor and Richard Schofield (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997).
Palladio, The Complete Illustrated Works, photography by Pino Guidolotti, introduction by Howard Burns, text by Guido Beltramini, ed. Guido Beltramini and Antonio Padoan (New York: Universe Publishing, 2001), 9.
Ibid.
Cf. ibid.
Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 41.
Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 245.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Cf. ibid., 54.
Ibid.
Cf. Benjamin, Lehre vom Ähnlichen, in GS 2: 204–10, see 207; as well as Benjamin, Über das mimetische Vermögen, in GS 2: 210–13, see 212ff.
Lotman, Universe of the Mind, 232ff.
See also Yuri M. Lotman's thoughts upon the problem of the historical fact in Lotman, Universe of the Mind, 218: “A decoding is always a reconstruction. In fact, the researcher uses the same method whether reconstructing a lost part of a document or reading the part that has been preserved. In both cases the researcher proceeds from the fact that the document is written in another language whose grammar has to be learnt.”