The change of Benjamin's diagnosis of modernity

Abstract

My research try to elucidate the differences between the critical theory developed by Benjamin in the 1920 and the one from the 1930. The PhD research project initially presented to Fapesp has the aim to show the existence of two moments in Walter Benjamin's critical theory of society. In other words, the existence of two critiques of Enlightenment. The hypothesis is the first moment expresses the origin of modernity in the idea and the myth of natural history through the German tragedies of 17th centuries, and the second one expresses the origin of modernity in the idea and myth of phantasmagoria (or progress) through the analysis of culture and consumption from the 19th century onward. This project to do a one year research internship at Humboldt-Universtät zu Berlin, under the supervision of Professor Daniel Weidner, inserts itself in the main PhD project presented above. During this one year period, I will be able to attend Professor Weidner's doctoral colloquium at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and also to research at Walter Benjamin Archive, located at the Akademie der Künste. At this Archive, I will have access to Benjamin's work and personal papers and to the most recent and important secondary literature about the reception of Benjamin's philosophy in order to analyze the changes on his diagnosis of modernity from the 20's to the 30's.