ARCADE ROJEC UE eS Ly Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin PREPARED ON THE BASIS OF THE GERMAN VOLUME EDITED BY ROLF TIEDEMANN THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND LONDON, ENGLANDCopyright © 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ‘Second printing, 1999 “This work isa translation of Walter Benjamin, Das Passagen-Werk, edited by Rolf Tiedemann, copyright ‘© 1982 by Subrkamp Verlag; volume 5 of Walter Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, prepared with the co- operation of Theodor W. Adorno and Gershom Scholem, edited by Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhiuser, copyright © 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1989 by Subrkamp Verlag. “Dialectics at a Seandsil” by Rolf Tiedemarin, was first published in English by MIT Press, copyright © 1988 by the ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Publication of this book has becn supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humani- ties, an independent federal agency. ‘Publication of this book has also been aided by a grant from Inter Nationes, Bonn, Cover photo: Walter Benjamin, ca. 1932. Photographer unknown, Gourtesy of the Theodor W. Adomo_ Archiv, Frankfurt am Main. Frontispiece: Passage Joullroy, 1845-1847, Photographer unknown, Courtesy Musée Camnavalet, Paris, Photo copyright © Photothéque des Musées de la Ville de Paris. - ‘Vignenes: pages i, 1, 825, 891, 1074, Instinut Francais d'Architecture; page 27, Hans Meyer-Veden; ‘page 869, Robert Doisneau, Library of Congress Cataloging‘in Publication Data Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940. [Passagen- Werk. English] ‘The arcades project / Walter Benjamin; translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin; prepared on the basis of the Geranan volume edited by Rolf Tiedemann. pe am. Includes index. ISBN 0-674-04326-X (alk. paper) L Tiedemann, Rolf. IL. Tite. PT2603.E455 P3513 1999 944’ 361081—de21 9.27615 Designed by Gwen Nefsky FrankfeldeMi [The Flaneur] A landscape haunts, intense as opium. ‘Mallanné ¢“Autefois, en marge d'un Baudelaire” in Divagation> ‘To read what was never written. —Hofinannsthal! And I travel in order to get to know my geography. —A madman, in Marcel Réja, [Art ches les fous (Paris, 1907), p. 131 Alll that can be found anywhere can be found in Paris. —Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, in Hugo, Oeuvres completes (Pars, 1881), novels, vol. 7p. 30, from the chapter “Ecce Paris, Ecce Home”? But the great reminiscences, the historical shudder—these are a trumpery which he (the flaneur) leaves to tourists, who think thereby to gain access to the genius loci with a military password. Our friend may well keep silent. At the approach of his footsteps, the place has roused; specchlessly, mindlessly, its mere intimate nearness gives him hints and instructions. He stands before Notre Dame de Lorette, and his soles remember: here is the spot where in former times the cheval de renfort—the spare horse—was hamessed to the omnibus that climbed the Rue des Martyrs toward Montmartre. Often, he would have given all he knows about the domicile of Balzac or of Gavarni, about the site of a surprise attack or even of a barricade, to be able to catch the scent of a threshold or to recognize a paving stone by touch, like any watchdog. (1,1) ‘The street conducts the fléneur into a vanished time. For him, every street is precipitous. It leads downward—if not to the mythical Mothers, then into a past that can be all the more spellbinding because it is not his own, not private. Nevertheless, it always remains the time of a childhood. But why that of the life he has lived? In the asphalt over which he passes, his steps awaken a surprising resonance. ‘The gaslight that streams down on the paving stones throws an equivocal light on this double ground. (M1,2]