Walter Benjamin's critical and historical method addresses the problem of conceptualizing a discontinuous history. In The Origin of German Tragic Drama he proposes allegory as an appropriate form for the representation of the past because it drains images of life so that they may be re-presented with the meaning endowed by the allegorist. In a similar way, literary criticism and historical materialism are involved in the process of mortification so that, from the distance of time, truth may be glimpsed. Benjamin privileges the fragmentary form of representation in allegory over the false unity of the artistic symbol. Whereas truth may be fleetingly revealed by the symbol, allegory forces the extended contemplation of history. Benjamin's method is always negative, looking back rather than forward, and his two main preoccupations, Messianism and Marxism, reflect this desire to reclaim the past. Over and above these interests, however, is his profound sense of nihilism in his study of the ruins of human history.

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Zugl.: Osnabrück, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.