The city-text and the critic-poetic: notes on Rua de mão única

Abstract

This study has as its object Rua de mão única a text published in 1928 by Walter Benjamin. Written during the Weimar Republic, the text of Benjamin is entirely fragmented and discontinuous, besides to approach a considerable variety of subjects, such as literature, arts, daily experiences and dreams. Trying to understand the work of Benjamin in the historical context of its creation, this study sought to move away the apparent lack of coherence in the text of Benjamin, studying it as an attempt to assess and positioning in face of the conditions of production and performance of the writer in the context of the modern metropolis. Thus, we sought to understand the complex composition of Rua de mão única in the intersection of aesthetic experience, critical methodology and historical reflection.