Ética da memória : imagens de Walter Benjamin

Abstract

This study aims to approach the subject ethics of memory in Walter Benjamin, with particu-lar emphasis on the large and singular work The Arcades Project . The work tries to face the proposed theme through the explanation of the fundamental concepts that integrates Benja-min s works, ideas that design the path which leads us to the theme ethics of memory . Ini-tially, it is discussed the concept of awakening as a wide idea, which is an extreme dialectical moment where every now is a given now of knowability . The notion of awakening is a threshold where apparent tiniest and undesirable images can be read, since every present mo-ment is permeated by images of the past that are synchronous to the present. The images do not belong to a specific time, but they become legible, like a lightning, only at a certain time. The interpretation of the images is directly related with the awakening from the myths and from the world of dreams which was the nineteenth century, taking into account that the most powerful myth of that century was (and still is) the myth of progress. Then, this work also ex-poses some considerations about what it means the dialectical images in Benjamin s work, and it also explains some ideas about literary montage as a method. All these points were vis-ited to direct and confirm the hypothesis that in the moment of awakening there is an ethics of memory in the work of Walter Benjamin.