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What kind of historical knowledge can we build? Montage, poetics and technique in the work of Walter Benjamin

ABSTRACT

The Benjaminian bet involves rethinking history in such a way that in recounting it nothing is lost. Hence the need for a new historical method that can critically capture from the present materials of the past in order to update them. In the present work, we decided to start from the Argentinian poetry book Deuda & literatura, by Omar Chauvié (2017), to reflect on montage as a technical and methodological principle of building historical knowledge. Secondly, we will take a tour through the concept of montage and certain figures—the technique, the quote, the authentic—to see how they operate in the different spheres of Walter Benjamin‘s thought. Finally, we will address the idea of the Benjaminian discontinuous history and the notion of anachronism. This tour will allow us to perceive that another construction of historical knowledge from the citation of materials and the structure of a montage that carries “the authentic” as its insignia and seal is possible.

KEYWORDS
Walter Benjamin; History; Montage

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