Discussion - Week Six - The Arcades Project - Convolute C, p. 82 - 100

[Jim]

This discussion covers Convolute C, Ancient Paris, Catacombs, Demolitions, Decline of Paris, p. 82 - 100

In this convolute, Benjamin explores ideas of topography and it’s changes over time. Channels, passages, caves, catacombs, and thresholds all create a kind of psychic topography, especially in Paris which has a very well-documented history over the centuries.

“Balzac has secured the mythic constitution of his world through precise topographic contours. Paris is the breeding ground of his mythology … What else can this mean but that topography is the ground plan of this mythic place of tradition (Traditionsraum), as it is of every such space, and that it can indeed become its key – just as it was the key to Greece for Pausanias, and just as the history and situation of the Paris arcades are to become the key for the underworld of this century, into which Paris has sunk.” p. 83