Repetition, experimentation: games of chance and the urban room for play

Autori

  • Nélio Conceição Universidade Nova de Lisboa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13130/2039-9251/9509

Abstract

Walter Benjamin’s texts on Baudelaire put forward a threefold analogy, surprising at first glance, between the experience of the crowd, typical of modern metropolises, mechanized work and games of chance. While exploring gambling and the gambler in Benjamin’s analysis, this article explores the inner ambiguity of the concept of repetition: firstly conceived as belonging to the «time of hell» of the ever-new, it can also be understood as a gateway for understanding the processes of experimentation, which are crucial to modern and contemporary aesthetic experiences. In this sense, urban space can also be conceived as a room for play, vulnerable to and enriched by chance and playful mechanisms encompassing aesthetic and political dimensions.

Riferimenti bibliografici

BENJAMIN, Andrew, “Porosity at the Edge: Working through Walter Benjamin’s ‘Naples’”, in Gevork Hartoonian (ed. by), Walter Benjamin and Architecture, Routledge, London-New York 2010, pp. 39-50.

BENJAMIN, Walter, Briefe, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1966.

––, “Neapel”, in Gesammelte Schriften, IV, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1972; “Naples”, translated by E. Jephcott, Selected Writings, vol. 1: 1913-1926, Harvard University Press, Cambridge-Massachusetts-London 2004.

––, “Spielzeug und Spielen”, in Gesammelte Schriften, III, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1972; “Toys and Play”, translated by R. Livingstone, in Selected Writings, vol. 2: 1927-1930, Harvard University Press, Cambridge-Massachusetts-London 2005.

––, “Paralipomena und Varia zur zweiten Fassung von ‘Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit’”, in Gesammelte Schriften, I, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1974.

––, “Über einige Motive bei Baudelaire”, in Gesammelte Schriften, I, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1974; “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire”, translated by H. Zohn, Selected Writings, vol. 4: 1938-1940, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge-Massachusetts-London 2003.

––, Das Passagen-Werk, in Gesammelte Schriften, V, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1982; The Arcades Project, translated by H. Eiland and K. McLaughlin, The Belknap Press of University Press, Cambridge-Massachusetts-London 1999.

––, “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit” (zweite Fassung), in Gesammelte Schriften, VII, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1989; “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility (second version), translated by E. Jephcott and H. Zohn, in Selected Writings, vol. 3: 1935-1938, Harvard University Press, Cambridge-Massachusetts-London 2002.

DEBORD, Guy, La Société du Spectacle, Buchet/Chastel, Paris 1967; The Society of the Spectacle, translated by K. Knabb, Rebel Press, London 2000.

ELLIOT, Brian, Benjamin for Architects, Routledge, London-New York 2011.

GAGNEBIN, Jeanne Marie, “Limiar, Aura e Rememoração”, Editora, 34, 2014.

HANSEN, Miriam Bratu, Cinema and Experience. Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, University of California Press, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London 2012.

HUIZINGA, Johan, Homo Ludens: Proeve Ener Bepaling Van Het Spelelement Der Cultuur, Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen 1938; Homo Ludens. A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, Routledge and Keagen Paul, London-Boston-Henley 1980.

KANT, Immanuel, Gesammelte Schriften, Königlich Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1900; Critique of the Power of Judgment, translated by Paul Guyer, Hackett, Indianapolis; Cambridge 1987.

MENKE, Betinne, Sprachfiguren. Name – Allegorie – Bild nach Walter Benjamin, Fink Verlag, München 1991.

MOLDER, Maria Filomena, O Químico e o Alquimista – Benjamin, Leitor de Baudelaire, Relógio D’Água, Lisboa 2011.

SCHNYDER, Peter, Alea. Zählen und Erzählen im Zeichen des Glücksspiels, Wallstein, Göttingen 2009.

SCHOLEM, Gershom, Walter Benjamin – die Geschichte einer Freundschaft, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1975.

SHMIDER, Christine, WERNER, Michael, “Das Baudelaire-Buch”, in B. Lindner (ed. by), Benjamin-Handbuch, Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart; Weimar 2006, pp. 567-584.

WEIDMANN, Heiner, “Geistesgegenwart: Das Spiel in Walter Benjamins Passagenarbeit”, in MLN, vol. 107, no. 3, «German Issue», April 1992, pp. 521-547.

WETZEL, Tanja, “Spiel”, in K. Barck et alli (ed. by), Äesthetische Grundbegriffe, Metzler, Stuttgart-Weimar 2010, pp. 577-618.

Dowloads

Pubblicato

2018-01-20

Fascicolo

Sezione

Sezione Monografica