The Place of Critique. On the Identity of Method and Object in Walter Benjamin’s Work

Abstract

This paper focuses on the problematic relationship between method and object in Walter Benjamin’s research. In order to do this, first we will try to clarify the dialectical structure of the notion of “critique”, which plays a key role in his method of historical knowledge. Benjamin’s peculiar appropriation of Goethean “dialectics” will allow us then to show the structural affinity that exists between the medium of representation and the historical object represented, paying special attention to the particular case of the object called “Baroque”.

Keywords

• Benjamin
• crítica
• dialéctica
• Goethe
• método
• origen
• polaridad
• representación histórica