History and Time in Walter Benjamin

 

When we talk about History, we can refer to the classical structure of past, present, and future. It might be brought up in cases in which people are discussing the differences between historical periods such as ancient, middle, modern, and contemporary ages. This basic structure may suggest that the time in History is a line; in this sense, it is a chronological route always advancing forward, which is a valid conception of time in different intellectual schools. However, it is important to point out that this is not an exclusive form of time, we have others that are more pertinent to be mentioned considering that the History of humanity is complex and tangled; and where heroes and victors are not the only ones involved in great feats.

In this text, I draw on Walter Benjamin’s philosophy to develop a brief framework for the idea of the alternative History. It involves digging more profoundly to meet other testimonies, memories, and affects from forgotten or even unknown people. The official History gives an accou
nt of what victors have conquered, dominated, and ruled. Nevertheless, it doesn’t inform us about defeated and damaged people in the same events. This is the reason why Benjamin encourages himself to develop a series of writings in order to critic the time of the official History, which is in favor of the heroes; and he elaborates a constellation of thesis for the History of the oppressed, which necessarily implies another form of time.

Even though Walter Benjamin is less famous than other contemporary philosophers, his ideas are extremely important for reflecting on the historical transformations of the twentieth century. This may be a pertinent reason for considering him as one of the most relevant philosophers of the last century. His influences come from German romanticism, Jewish theology, and Marxist materialism. These provide spiritual and materialist elements for his philosophy, and we can give an account of it through his focus on historical remains as objects of study and the forces hidden behind them. That is the voices of the dead resonating from the past. Voices never listened before trying to appear in now time. This is what Benjamin intends to unravel through his investigations.

Remembering the idea of official History, we must point out that it is supported by the logic of chronological time. The past is considered a primitive stage in which societies evolve creating new tools, boosting their social integration, and improving their political structures; all of this in order to aim to an advanced future with more civilized people. Even though this form of time is supported by the History of the victors, idealist philosophy, and paradoxically some Marxist schools; we must indicate that this is a very poor expression of the time. Benjamin rather stakes into the idea of a time beyond the chronological pattern. He proposes suspending the progressive route of the events to think of a now time in which all the forces of History are happening at the moment. This is the time of the oppressed. When a revolutionary force from the past burst into the present, time becomes a tangle in which the voices of the defeated are screaming angrily. Considering that the past survives in the present we can say that the lineal time disappears. Maybe it could be an illusion, or maybe it could create illusions to flood down the memories of the oppressed.

Benjamin draws on a painting to critic the lineal time and proposes another point of view on History. He appeals to the Angelus Novus painting by Paul Klee and develops a complex description. He says that there is an angel who is being propelled toward his back by a strong blow; his sight is turned to the past in which he contemplates fixedly how wreckages are piling and being hurled before his feet. The angel cannot do anything but wishes to awaken the dead and piece what has been smashed. He just keeps contemplating how the debris continues growing skyward. Benjamin finishes by saying that the blow propelling the angel is what we call “progress”.

Progress is the concept for supporting the idea that History evolves in a chronological time. However, Benjamin proposes the Angelus Novus description to question the illusionary idea of the evolution of humanity along a chain of historical events. The angel doesn’t contemplate a chain of events, he stares at one catastrophe. History is an accumulation of the same debris piling one on top of another. Thinking that we are evolving from primitive to civilized people is an illusion provided by modernity, rather we are the same humanity today in relation with others from different ages. And History burst in the same events through different forms of appearance: wreckages hurled before our feet.

Through Benjamin’s philosophy we find a key for the reconstruction of the wreckages, it means digging into the memory of the forgotten dead as a historical and political strategy. Official History has been hiding other existences behind phantasmagories of heroic greatness, hegemonic events, or even merchandises. These are devices applied by a powerful machine that continues insisting on the lineal time as a way of remaining conservative hegemonic. It is important to pay attention to how the voices from the past are appearing in the present and what are the political resonances in today’s world.

By: Julio Maquilón