Passages and the episteme of Crossing a Threshold. About the Reading of What Was Never Written Down, but the Body Inscribed in the Text

Abstract

This text is an attempt to collect traces of readings on the hermeneutics of the city as a space dense with meanings that require discernment in a completely unusual phenomenology, and not just the topography of the city. The modern humanities have greatly contributed to an understanding of and searching for discourse of such places/non-places, passages, alleys, and labyrinths, in which the body each time feels different and forces a different description than a neutral one or an indifferent one. It is not without significance that we have long known that sometimes the “genius loci,” as well as our fear, alienation, or, on the contrary, domestication, and captivation truly reign. This article is a survey of my readings and fascinations that arose thanks to them. Walter Benjamin’s reflections on passages are the basis of my discourse. I also use the accomplishments of outstanding Polish humanists, creatively fitting into this perspective.

Keywords

• reading
• passages
• flaneur
• labyrinth
• city
• body
• text
• episteme