This paper investigates the theme of construction and destruction of memories through the thought of Walter Benjamin. It focuses on three ideas: storytelling, memory, and childhood, which emerge from the essay “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov” (1936). Developing the inner tensions of this essay, the paper highlights some key issues in the Benjaminian archaeology of the Modernity: the rethinking of narrative thought after the demise of the art of storytelling; the critique of historicist narration; the notion of “creative indifference”; and the relationship between memory, messianism and childhood. In the constellation of these three ideas, it is possible to observe one of Benjamin’s most fruitful attempts to recognize the “secret agreement between past generations and the present one”.
Corrispondenze monadologiche. Narrazione, memoria, infanzia in Walter Benjamin / Trotta, FRANCESCO GIUSEPPE. - (2023), pp. 111-131.
Corrispondenze monadologiche. Narrazione, memoria, infanzia in Walter Benjamin
Francesco Giuseppe Trotta
2023
Abstract
This paper investigates the theme of construction and destruction of memories through the thought of Walter Benjamin. It focuses on three ideas: storytelling, memory, and childhood, which emerge from the essay “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov” (1936). Developing the inner tensions of this essay, the paper highlights some key issues in the Benjaminian archaeology of the Modernity: the rethinking of narrative thought after the demise of the art of storytelling; the critique of historicist narration; the notion of “creative indifference”; and the relationship between memory, messianism and childhood. In the constellation of these three ideas, it is possible to observe one of Benjamin’s most fruitful attempts to recognize the “secret agreement between past generations and the present one”.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.