Por uma antropologia benjaminiana: repensando paradigmas do teatro dramático

Abstract

This essay may be read as a Benjaminian construction site. The juxtaposition of apparently distant figures in abrupt and surprising relations may look strange. But, here one may also discover revealing affinities. In the whirlpools of Michael Taussig’s studies, I intend to explore a theoretical composition in counterpoint: on one side, Victor Turner and Clifford Geertz, whose writings may evoke a sort of dramatic theater paradigm for anthropology, and, on the other, two figures at the margins of anthropology and dramatic theater – Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht. The gravitational force of the essay may be found in these margins, particularly in the fragmented work of Benjamin. Three allegories here emerge, in the movement towards a Benjaminian anthropology: 1) the magical mirror, 2) its shattering, and 3) illuminations. These moments may suggest an unsettling form of rite of passage: the passage to a passage-like condition.