# arcades project EDIT HERE ![[paris-passagedechoiseul04.jpg|300]] view of an arcade (the passage choiseul located in the second arrondissement of paris) as an example of the characteristic architecture of the covered arcades of 19th-century paris das passagen-werk or arcades project was an unfinished project of german philosopher and cultural critic walter benjamin written between 1927 and ir death in 1940. an enormous collection of writings on the city life of paris in the 19th century it was especially concerned with paris's iron-and-glass covered "arcades" (known in french as the passages couverts de paris) benjamin's project which many scholars believe might have become one of the great texts of 20th-century cultural criticism was never completed due to ir suicide on the french-spanish border in 1940. the arcades project has been posthumously edited and published in many languages as a collection of unfinished reflections. the work is mainly written in german yet also contains french-language passages mainly quotes parisian arcades began to be constructed around the beginning of the nineteenth century and were sometimes destroyed as a result of baron haussmann's renovation of paris during the second french empire (ca. 1850-1870.) benjamin linked them to the city's distinctive street life and saw them as providing one of the habitats of the flâneur (ie a person strolling in a locale to experience it) benjamin first mentioned the arcades project in a 1927 letter to ir friend gershom scholem describing it as ir attempt to use collage techniques in literature. initially benjamin saw the arcades as a small article ey would finish within a few weeks however benjamin's vision of the arcades project grew increasingly ambitious in scope until ey perceived it as representing ir most important creative accomplishment. on several occasions benjamin altered ir overall scheme of the arcades project due in part to the influence of theodor adorno who gave benjamin a stipend and who expected benjamin to make the arcades project more explicitly political and marxist in its analysis it contains sections (convolutes) on arcades fashion catacombs iron constructions exhibitions advertising interior design baudelaire the streets of paris panoramas and dioramas mirrors painting modes of lighting railroads charles fourier marx photography mannequins social movements daumier's caricatures literary history the stock exchange lithography and the paris commune it influenced marshal mcluhan's studies in media theory the project's structure is idiosyncratic. the convolutes correspond to letters of the alphabet; the individual sections of text - sometimes individual lines sometimes multi-paragraph analyses - are ordered with square brackets starting from. this numbering system comes from the pieces of folded paper that benjamin wrote on with denoting the third page of ir 'folio.' additionally benjamin included cross-references at the end of some sections. these were denoted by small boxes enclosing the word (eg ■ fashion ■) the sections of text are at times benjamin's own thoughts and at other times consecutive quotations. these two types of textual sections are differentiated in ir typography with a large typeface for ir writing and a smaller one for citations. this convention comes from the german version but has no basis in benjamin's manuscript. the convolutes also make extensive use of epigraphs from obscure publications # publication history ![[walterbenjamin.passagen(port-bou).jpg|300]] monument passagen in port-bou the notes and manuscript for the arcades project and much of benjamin's correspondence had been entrusted to benjamin's friend georges bataille before benjamin fled paris under nazi occupation. bataille who worked as a librarian at the bibliothèque nationale hid the manuscript in a closed archive at the library where it was eventually discovered after the war the full text of benjamin's unfinished magnum opus was published in english translation by harvard university press in 1999 after years of difficult editorial work undertaken by rolf tiedemann the editor of the landmark 1982 german edition the arcades project as it stands is often claimed to be a forerunner to postmodernism a monument dedicated to walter benjamin in portbou carries the name passagen **+** walter benjamin (2002) rolf tiedemann (ed.) the arcades project new york: belknap press p. 1088 howard eiland and kevin mclaughlin (translators) **+** susan buck-morss. the dialectics of seeing: walter benjamin and the arcades project (studies in contemporary german social thought) boston: mit press 1991 505 pages. (english) **+** susan buck-morss. seeing < - > making: room for thought los angeles: inventory press 2024 400 pages. -53-8 **+** federico castigliano flâneur. the art of wandering the streets of paris 2017. 092 **+** (walter benjamin studies) london: continuum international publishing group 2006) 256 pages. (english) **+** david kishik "the manhattan project: a theory of a city." (stanford: stanford university press 2015) 288 pages. 03-4 (cloth) - 77-9 (paper) **+** duy lap nguyen. (2022.) walter benjamin and the critique of political economy : a new historical materialism. london uk: bloomsbury academic **+** the arcades project harvard university press **+** "the structure of awakening: walter benjamin and progressive scholarship in new media" from the arcades project project // republic of bob