Cohen, Walter Benjamins Phantasmagoria (1989) PDF

Walter Benjamin's Phantasmagoria
Author(s): Margaret Cohen

Reviewed work(s):
Source: New German Critique, No. 48 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 87-107
Published by: New German Critique
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Walter
Benjamin'sPhantasmagoria
MargaretCohen
Werke(JamfPetrolethe ruinsof theJamfOlfabriken
Confronting
um FactoryWorks),in thelightthatbreaks"some nightat too deep an
hourto explainaway,"Thomas Pynchon'sEnzian reachesan "extraThis serpentine
understanding.
ordinary
slag-heap... isnota ruinatall.
It is inperfect
order."'If readers of Walter Benjamin sometimes
working
in an Enzian-likeepiphany,at othermoments
graspthePassagen-Werk
in
a
fashionmore suitableto Coleridge.Briefly
it
theyapprehend
imaginingthistextin all its completedmajesty,theysee fullydevelThe followingesoped conceptswhereBenjaminleftonlyfragments.
Kubla
into
such
from
one
results
Khan,forit
glimpse
Benjamin's
say
elaboratesa conceptthatI imaginewould have become a keystoneof
thePassagen-Werk,
had Benjamineverbroughthis projectto complewhichrecurswithtroublingintion.This conceptis thephantasmagoria,
sistence throughoutBenjamin's arcades project. Suggestingthat
fromits
Benjamin'sinterestin the phantasmagoriaderivesprimarily
I
visual
as
manifestation, 19th-century
spectacle, willretechnological
to
is
well-suited
veal how thisconcept particularly
figureBenjamin's
relationsin a society
Marxist-Freudian
theoryof base-superstructure
ruledby thecommodityform.In addition,I willarguethatthephanBenjaminforitspowerto capturehisownmethtasmagoriafascinates
od of criticalillumination.Challengingan Enlightenment
opposition
and culturalcritique,Benjamin's
betweenideological mystification
central
phantasmagoriaemblematizes one of the Passagen-Werk's
methodologicalprojects:to freeMarxistanalysisfromitsoverwhelmingvalorizationof rationalformsof representation.
Rainbow(New York:Viking,1973) 520.
1. Thomas Pynchon,Gravity's
87
88
MargaretCohen
FromDream to Phantasmagoria:
The Transformation
ofBenjamin'sParisianResumes
The importanceofthephantasmagoria
to Benjaminemergesin his
"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury,"a 1935 resumbof the
forSocialResearch.2
In thistext,
fortheInstitute
arcadesprojectwritten
exthe
with
culture's
associates
phantasmagoria commodity
Benjamin
of
Marx's
use
of
and
intellectual
its
material
products,echoing
perience
in
the Passagen-Werk's
the term in Capital.Benjamin quotes Marx
of commoditieshas itsorigin... in the
KonvolutG: "'This fetishism
ofthelaborthatproducesthem.... It is onlya
peculiarsocialcharacter
definitesocial relationbetweenmen thatassumes,in theireyes,the
formof a relationbetweenthings"'(PW 245).3As has
phantasmagorical
oftenbeen observed,Benjamin extends Marx's statementon the
powersof the commodityto coverthe entiredophantasmagorical
thatMarx
mainofParisianculturalproducts,a use ofphantasmagoria
If
commodities
the
himselfinitiatesin TheEighteenth
disBrumaire.4
a
as
themselves
manifest
Exhibitions
played withinthe Universal
reaches
of capitalistculture
phantasmagoria "the phantasmagoria
itsmostbrilliantdisplayin theUniversalExhibitionof 1867" - intelin the 19thcenturyalso takeson a phantasmagorical
lectualreflection
of 'culcast.5Benjamindescribes,forexample,"the phantasmagoria
to
its
false
savors
consciousness
the
which
in
turalhistory,'
bourgeoisie
"the
illusionsof the proletariat:
the last," and the phantasmagorical
Die
oftheessay'stitle(Paris,
articlein thetranslation
2. I haveincludedthedefinite
itfromBenjamin's1939 essayentitled
to distinguish
desXIXe.Jahrhunderts)
Hauptstadt
articlein his 1939esWhenBenjamindropsthedefinite
duXIXieme
sidcle.
Paris,Capitale
say,he respondsto a commentin Adorno'sHornbergletter:"As a title,I shouldlike
not TheCapital" (Theodor Adorno, letto propose Paris,CapitaloftheNineteenth
Century,
andPolitics
terto WalterBenjamin,2 August1935,Aesthetics
[London:New LeftBooks,
ed. PeterDemetz,trans.
in
in
1935
The
Reflections,
English
essay
appears
115).
1977]
where
EdmundJephcott(New York:Harcourt,1978). I havemodifiedthetranslation
it seemed necessary.The 1939 essayappears as partof thePassagen-Werk
(Frankfurt:
to thePassagen-Werk
willbe citedin thebodyofthearSuhrkamp,1982).Allreferences
ticle with the abbrcviatilonl '. All
(ir
1fthc Palsstge-l4 k aFr
unlcss
Iiil,
'~nlati
otherwiseindicated.
Moore
Samuel
ofthispassageoffered
thetranslation
3. I havemodifiedslightly
by
and Edward Aveling,who translate"phantasmagorische"as "fantastic."See Karl
Marx,Capital,vol. 1 (New York:Modern Library,1906) 83.
4. See Susan Buck-Morss,"RedeemingMass Cultureforthe Revolution,"New
On
29 (1983): 213; and RolfTiedemann,"Dialecticsat a Standstill,"
German
Critique
ed. GarySmith(Cambridge,MA: MIT Press,1986) 277.
Walter
Benjamin,
5. WalterBenjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"153.
89
Commune puts an end to the phantasmagoria thatdominates the freedom of the proletariat.It dispels the illusion thatthe task of the proletarian revolution is to complete the work of 1789 hand in hand with
the bourgeoisie."6
But it is only with the 1939 expose of the arcades project, "Paris,
Capital of the 19th Century,"which Benjamin produced to attractfinancial aid froman American patron,thatthe phantasmagoriaassumes
a key methodological position. The increased importance assigned to
the phantasmagoria is one of many differencesbetween this and the
1935 essay. As Buck-Morsspoints out, the 1939 expose is written"in a
lucid, descriptivestyle,with a totallynew introductionand conclusion,
in which the dream theory is strikinglyabsent."'7 Consonant with
Benjamin's turn away from dream theory,his 1939 sketchof the arcades project drops the controversialconcept of the dialectical image.
In addition, it analyzes the transformationsof 19th-centuryParis in
more rigorouslyMarxistterms,takingpains to link Parisian culturalinnovations to specific economic factors.Benjamin also abandons the
section entitled"Daguerre, or the Panoramas," which describes how
visual technologiesof the panorama and photogthe new 19th-century
the
century's"new feelingabout life."8For our purposes,
raphyexpress
the
most
however,
importanttransformationin the 1939 sketchis the
rise in importanceof the phantasmagoria,which I will suggestto be the
resultof Benjamin's turn away fromthe dream.
The phantasmagoria figuresprominentlyin the introductorysection
of the 1939 essay, where it, ratherthan the "dialectical image" that is
"a dream image,"9 becomes the expressiveformtaken by the products
of 19th-centurycommodity culture. Benjamin writes:
Our inquiryproposes to show how, as a consequence of the
of civilization,the new formsof lifeand
reifying
representation
thenew economicand technologicalcreationsthatwe owe to the
These
last centuryenterinto the universeof a phantasmagoria.
creationsundergo this 'illumination'not only in a theoretical
but also in theimmediamanner,by an ideologicaltransposition,
manifest
themselvesas phantasof
cy perceptiblepresence.They
magorias(PW 61).
6.
7.
8.
9.
Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"158, 160.

Buck-Morss238.
Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"150.
Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"157.
90
MargaretCohen
ofthedream-like
Nowheredoes Benjamin'stransformation
experiof
of
into
the
ence thecommodity
experience thephantasmagoria
appear morevividlythanin theconclusionto the 1939 essay.Whilethe
1935 essayendswithBenjamin'ssuggestion
thatthedemystification
of
is
of
Paris
an
realization
of
19th-century
experience awakening("the
dreamelementsin wakingis thetextbookexampleofdialecticalthinking"'0),the 1939essayconcludesbyaccordingthepowerofideological
itself.
to thephantasmagoria
demystification
AugusteBlanqui'sEternit6
par les Astres,writes Benjamin, is "a last phantasmagoria of cosmic
includesthemostacerbiccritiqueofall the
whichimplicitly
character,
others"(PW 75). Benjaminthustransforms
the 1935 oppositionbetweendream and awakeninginto the difference
betweenmystifying
and critical(illuminating)
phantasmagorias.
"TheImmediacy
Presence":
Robertson's
ofPerceptible
Phantasmagoria
While Marx's use of the phantasmagoria explains why Benjamin

applies the term to the 19th-century's"ideological transposition" of
"new economic and technological creations," it does not explain why
Benjamin describes this experience as an "'illumination"' of "perceptible presence" (PW 61). True, ideological transpositiondoes accord
humancreationsa strangesortof perceptiblepresence,but thispresin eithera literalor a figurencewould hardlyseemto be illuminating,

ativesense.Benjamin,however,providesus withan alternative
wayto
understand the illuminations of phantasmagoric manifestation.PanoKonvolut devoted to popular forms of 19thrama, the Passagen-Werk
visual
century
spectacle, opens with the followingfragment:
Therewerepanoramas,dioramas,cosmoramas,diaphanoramas,
navaloramas,pleoramas
Eo I travelby sea, boating),phanto(rX,
and phanscopes,
phantasmagorical
phantasma-parastasias,
experiences
ones,picturesquetripsin a room,georamas;optitasmaparastatic
cal picturesques,cineoramas,phanoramas,stereoramas,
cycloramas, dramaticpanorama(PW 655, emphasisadded).
One of these spectacles, the "phantasmagorical experience" or, as it
was also called, the phantasmagoria,was literallyilluminating.Using a
movablemagiclanterncalled a phantoscope,itprojectedforitsspec-
tatorsa parade of ghosts.
10. Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"162.
91
If we examine the phantasmagoria as a 19th-centuryspectacle, we

discover that its subject matter exemplifies the 19th-centurycultural
manifestationsstudied by Benjamin. Invented in the late 1790's by the
Belgian "doctor-aeronaut" Etienne-Gaspard Robertson, the phantasmagoria enjoyed its greatestvogue in the hands of its creator,with accounts of Robertson's popular performancesappearing in newspapers
of the time." A 1798 spectacle reviewed in L'Amides Lois opened with
Robertson's answer to a member of the audience who demanded to
see the ghost of Marat:
"Because I have not been able to re-establish
thecultof Marat
in an officialnewspaper,I'd at leastlike to see his shade."
Robertsonpoursonto a hot stovetwoglassesof blood, a bottle
des
of vitriol,12 drops of brandy,and two copies of theJournal
hommes
libres.Rightaway,a small,lividghostgraduallybeginsto
appear,armedwitha daggerand wearinga redcap. The manwith
bristlinghair recognizesit to be Marat; he wantsto kiss it, the
ghostmakesa terrifying
grimaceand disappears.12
On thisnight,the phantasmagorianalso called beforehis spectatorsless
ghosts:the mythicfounderof the Swissrepublic,WilliamTell,
horrifying
who appeared "withrepublicanpride"; the ghostsofVirgiland Voltaire;
and the ghost of a woman in a Parisian dandy's gallant adventure:
A youngdandybegs fortheappearanceof a womanwhomhe
tenderlyloved and whose portraitin miniaturehe showsto the
whothrowsontotheburnersomesparrowfeathphantasmagorian,
ers,a fewgrainsof phosphorus,and a dozen butterflies.
Soon, a
herbreastuncovered,
herhairstreaming,
womanis tobe perceived,
who fixeson heryoungfrienda tenderand sorrowful
expression.
A seriousman sitting
nextto me cries,carrying
his hand to his
forehead:"Oh myGod! I thinkthat'smywife,"and he runsout,
fearingthatit is no longera ghost.'3
11. For mydiscussionof Robertson'sphantasmagoria,
I relyon G.-M. Coissac's
Histoire
du Cinimatographe
from
(Paris:Editionsdu 'Cineopse,' 1925). All translations
thistextare mine.Sincemyinitialresearchon thesubject,TerryCastlehas published
and entertaining
an illuminating
articleon theevolutionoftheconceptofthephantaswhichprovidesinformation
on thephantasmagoria
not
magoriain the 19thcentury,
found in Coissac. See TerryCastle,"Phantasmagoria:SpectralTechnologyand the
Inquiry15.1 (1988).
Metaphoricsof Modern Reverie,"Critical
12. L'AmidesLois,28 March 1798; quoted in Coissac 22.
13. Coissac 22.
92
MargaretCohen
Robertson's performancereached the followingspectacular climax:

"Citizensand gentlemen,"said Robertson,"untilnowI haveonly
showntoyouone shadeat a time;myartis notlimitedto thesetriof yourservant.I
fles,theyare onlythepreludeto thesavoir-faire
can showto kindlymenthecrowdofshadeswho,duringtheirlife,
I can makeevilmen surhavebeen helpedbythem;reciprocally,
the
shades
of
their
victims."
vey
Robertsonwas invitedto thistestbyalmostunanimouscheers.
Two individualsalone wereagainstit;buttheiroppositiononlyirritatedthe desiresof thosegathered.
throwsonto the burnerthe
Rightaway,the phantasmagorian
to themassacresat theprisreportsofMay 31 - thosepertaining
ons of Aix,Marseilleand Tarascon;a collectionof denunciations
and decrees;a listof suspects;the collectionofjudgmentsof the
RevolutionaryCourt; a bundle of demagogic and aristocratic
newspapers;a copy of the Reveildu Peuple.Then he pronounces
withemphasisthemagicwords:conspirator,
humanity,
terrorist,justice,
alarmist,
hoarder,
Girondin,
Moderate,
Jacobin,
exaggerated,
publicsafety,
Orleanist.
one sees groupscoveredwithbloodyveils
Immediately,
risingup; theysurround,theypressthetwoindividualswho had
refusedto givein to thegeneralwish,and who,frightened
bythis
terriblespectacle,run out of the room hastily,givinghorrible
howls... One was Barrbre[sic],theotherCambon.'4
If the ghosts haunting Robertson's phantasmagoria resemble the
ghosts in Benjamin's arcades, the phantasmagoria performson these
spectral presences a transformationthat exemplifies the ideological
transpositionof material realityBenjamin describes. Robertson turns
the bloody events of recent historyinto aestheticapparitions,fantastic
nightmaresof an evening's entertainment.Divested of their material
reality,however, these historicalfiguresare more than merely enterdansla le'gende,
taining.Robertson helps them to entrer
integratingthem
of
of
the
"the
'cultural
into
pantheon
phantasmagoria
history,"'where
theyplay the role of evil demons to the proud hero who founds Swiss
bourgeois liberty.Robertson's representationthus seeks to exorcise
the demonic power of the revolutionarymemories haunting Parisian
imagination,an exorcism which thejournalist, Poultier-Delmotte,well
understandswhen he personifiesit in the flightof two ex-members of
14.
Coissac 23.
93
the Committee for Public Safety,Cambon and Barere. What better

synecdoche for the ideological transpositionworked by "the phantasmagoria of 'cultural history"'and "the phantasmagoria of civilization"
than the phantasmagoria itself?.
In TheCameraObscuraofIdeology
"Concerning the doctrine of the ideological superstructure,"writes

Benjamin in a key passage from Konvolut K:
At firstit seems as ifMarxwantedonlyto establisha causal relaand base. But the observationthat
tion betweensuperstructure
theideologyof thesuperstructure
reflects
theserelationsin a false
and distortedmanneralreadygoes beyondthis.The questionis,
theconceptual
namely:ifthebase, to a certainextent,determines
- thisdetermination
and practicalmaterialof thesuperstructure
- howis itthento be charis,however,notone ofsimplereflection
acterized,leavingaside the question of the causes forits emer- the superstructure
is the expressionof
gence?As itsexpression
thebase (PW 495, emphasisadded).
Objecting to Marx's descriptionof a mimeticbase-superstructurerelation, Benjamin points out that this description does not do justice to
the complexityof the relation that Marx himselfimplies. If Benjamin
privilegesthe phantasmagoria as an emblem forMarxistideology, it is
in part, I would suggest, because this concept allows him to correct
Marx's falselymimeticrepresentationby simultaneouslyretainingand
refiningthe technologicalmetaphor forideology employed layMarx in
the notion of the cameraobscura.
When Benjamin takes Marx's description of ideology to task, he
challenges a common Marxist representationof ideology inaugurated
by a celebrated metaphor from the early Marx: "in all ideology men
and theircircumstancesappear upside-down as in a cameraobscura.. ."15
the phantasmagoriaforthecameraobscura,
Substituting
Benjamin corrects
relationbetweenideological representationand realithe over-simplified
typrojected in Marx's metaphor. While, like historical"vulgar naturalism," the cameraobscuramechanicallyreversesthe externalworld in the
darkened chamber of thought,the magic lanternof the phantasmagoria
PartOne,WithSelections
15. Karl Marx and FrederickEngels,TheGerman
Ideology:
PartsTwoandThree
andSupplementary
ed. C.J.Arthur(NewYork:International
Texts,
from
Publishers,1976) 47.
94
MargaretCohen
invertspainted slides which are themselvesartisticproducts (PW 575).

of the objective world but ratherthe obIt does not project a reflection
world's
its
jective
expression, representationas it is mediated through
imaginative subjective processes. The aesthetic effectof the phantasmagoria also more closelyresembles the subjectiveexperience of ideological transpositionthatMarx describes. While the cameraobscuradoes
not attemptto fool its audience into mistakingits two-dimensionalinversions of realityfor the outside world, the phantasmagoria endows
its creations with a spectral realityof theirown. Robertson's phantasmagoria expresses not only the non-mimeticinflectionthat Benjamin
works on Marx's representationof ideology as the cameraobscura,but
also the content of Benjamin's own relation to these representations.
The forerunnerof the magic lantern,the cameraobscuraprovided the
optical principles which this later technologyrefined.
In suggestingthe 19th-century
phantasmagoriaas a spectacle thatelnon-mimetic
modificationof Marxist acegantlycaptures Benjamin's
counts of ideological representation,I extend Benjamin's interestin
thisspectacle well beyond its briefmention in Konvolut Q. This extension, however,is consonant withBenjamin's approach to the technology of visual representationthroughouthis Parisian production cycle.
From the cycle's firstwork, One-WayStreet,Benjamin seeks to nuance
equations ofvisual and ideological illusion throughan appeal to historical occurrence,and itwould be instructiveto examine closelyhis representations of stereoscopes, panoramas, dioramas, and photographic
and earlycinematicprocedure in lightof thisconcern. Speaking generally,we mightsay thatBenjamin invokes these spectacles to investigate
how, as Marx put it,the contentgoes beyond the phrase. The 19th-centuryexperience of illusoryvisual representationsadds complexityto the
rhetoricof visual illusion prominentin Marx's discussions of ideology
- indicating,also, the extentto which these discussions are the product of a particulartime and place. Puttingtheoryand historyinto a muvisual
tuallychallengingrelation,Benjamin's treatmentof 19th-century
representationfurthershis attempt to forge a historicallynuanced
commodiMarxism thatis capable of apprehending both 19th-century
in
it
describes.
the
culture
that
and
its
culture
implication
ty
In consideringBenjamin's interestin the linkbetweenvisual technology and tropesof ideological illusion,let me suggestthatBenjamin's increasing fondness for the phantasmagoria explains a previouslymentioned differencebetween his 1935 and 1939 Parisian exposes. I have
Benjamin's
Phantasmagoria 95
pointedoutthatthe1939exposeabandonsthesectionofthe 1935essay
entitled
"Daguerre,or thePanoramas."One could arguethatBenjamin
turnsawayfromphotography
becausehe has alreadydevoteda substantialessayto thesubject,exceptthathe seemsto have no qualms about
a largesectionon Baudelaire,aboutwhomhe had alreadywritretaining
ten and publishedelsewhere.Rather,it seems to me thatBenjamin's
turnawayfromphotography
and thepanoramais evidenceofthephanincreased
tasmagoria's
conceptualpower.WhileBenjamintoysin 1935
withphotography
and the panoramaas vividexpressionsof the 19th"newfeelingaboutlife,"'6by 1939he has settledon thephancentury's
as thevisualemblemofthisfeeling.
He thusrelegates
alternatasmagoria
tiveformsofvisualrepresentation
to a distinctly
subordinateplace.
as theAfterlife
Phantasmagoria
ofAllegory
Robertson'sspectaclecontainsyetanotherattraction
forBenjamin,
ifwe are attentive
to itslinguisticcontent.The termphantasmagoria
was coined by Robertsonin 1797 to describehis ghostlyperformhis neologismis unclear.
ances,althoughtheetymology
underwriting
Littreproposesthe followingetymology:
"E. 4&v0r
aopa, apparition
and 6yop ieW,speak:speakto theghosts,call theghosts."'7
(see ghost,
in contrast,suggeststhatthe word comes from"the Greek
Le Robert,
'to speak in public,'undertheinfl.of
phantasma
'ghost,'and agoreuein
>
for
and
allegory
(
Phantasm); Guiraud,'popularhybrid'offantasme
'to fool."' s While Littr's etymologycapturesRobertgourer,
agourer
offeredbyLe Robert
is more
son's procedure,the principaletymology
for
significant Benjamin. Deriving phantasmagoriaetymologically
fromallegory,itlinksthistermto Benjamin'sprivilegedmetaconcept
Drama.The suppositionthat
of allegoryin TheOriginofGerman
Tragic
in
stems
fromtheterm's
interest
partially
Benjamin's
phantasmagoria
relationto allegoryis supportedby Benjamin'srepeated
etymological
associationof the Passagen-Werk
project to this earlierwork.When
forexample,ofhis newly-conto
Gershom
writes
Scholem,
Benjamin
ceivedarcadesproject,he describesitas a ParisianversionofTheOrigin
Drama:
ofGerman
Tragic
16. Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"150.
17. Emile Littri,Dictionnaire
de la languefrangaise,
vol. 3 (Paris:Gallimard,1963)
1407; mytranslation.
dela languefrangaise,
18. LeRobert,
Dictionnaire
vol. 4 (Paris:Le Robert,1985)404; my
translation.
96
MargaretCohen
theworkwithwhichI am nowoccupied,
WhenI havefinished
Street
... theproduction
cycleofOne-Way
provisionally.
carefully,
dramabook
willbe closedforme inthesamewaythatthetragic
ofOne-Way
Street
motifs
will
closedtheGermanone.The profane
in
hellish
intensification.19
paradeby
a place of honor in his hellishparade,
Grantingthe phantasmagoria
term
modifiestheetymology
ofthe Gera
which
Benjaminprivileges
in
a
fashion
difan
man cycle'skeymetaconcept
expressing important
France.
ferencebetween 17th-century
Germanyand 19th-century
on themodel ofallegory,theword"phantasmagoWhileconstructed
ria" is comprisedof somewhatdifferent
componentsetymological
The
ratherthan allegory'sallosand agoreuein.
ofphantasmaand agoreuein
difference
betweenthe etymologiesof allegoryand phantasmagoria
difference
betweenthe worldsthatBenjamin
expressesa significant
can be read to
uses thesetermsto conjureup. Allegory'setymology
mean,amongotherthings,"speakingother"withintheagora- a term
as wellas thepublicplace. True to itsetythatmeansthemarketplace
mology,17th-century
allegoryremainsforBenjaminwithinthe marto it.The fallenaspecttakketplace,but italso indicatesan alternative
en by the sacred in the realm of the profane,allegorycontinuesto
pointtowardsthesacred,and hencetowardsa possibletheologicalredemptionof secularhistory.
of redemptionand as
impliesthe possibility
Allegory'setymology
ofthephantasmagoria,
suchcontrasts
withtheetymology
whichsubstitutesghostsfortheallosthatsignifies
allegory'stranscendence.
Appearremains
as
demonic
the
ing
allegory's
Doppelglinger, phantasmagoria
in
rooted
the
haunted
realm
of
commercial
Its
exchange. etymolfirmly
ogythuswell expressesBenjamin'sconclusionsabout the commodity
Parisianhelland abouttheinescapability
ofthis
originsof 19th-century
hell.20
Indeed,Benjamin's1939exposeon thearcadesexplicitly
suggests
the phantasmagorical
commodityas the 19th-century
equivalentto
allegory.He writes:"to thesingulardebasementofthings
17th-century
19. Walter Benjamin, Briefe(Frankfurt:Suhrkamp, 1966) 455; my translation.
20. I invoke the term "hell" with the simultaneous despair and playfulnessBenjamin gives it; what betterevidence of the ambiguityof Benjamin's designation than his
decision to privilege the phantasmagoria as its emblem? For the playfulness of this
designation, see also the wittilyhellish characterization of Paris in the minor genre of
Parisian panoramic literaturedear to Benjamin and exemplified by Hetzel's Le Diablea
Paris (Paris: 1846).
97
of 17th-century
allegory,correby theirmeaning,which is characteristic
debasement
of
the
their
thingsby
singular
sponds
price as commodities" (PW 7 1). This sentencesubstantiallymodifiesthe translationof allegoryinto the 19thcenturythatBenjamin proposed in his 1935 resume
of the arcades project: "as in the seventeenthcenturythe canon of
dialecticalimagerycame to be allegory,in the nineteenthit is novelty."21
Benjamin already contraststhe permanentlyfallenexperience of the
phantasmagoriawithprovisionallyfallenallegoryin the finalpages of The
OriginofGermanTragicDrama:
In God's worldthe allegoristawakens.... Allegory,of course,
thatwas most peculiarto it: the secret,
therebyloses everything
the
rule in therealmof dead obprivilegedknowledge, arbitrary
of
a
the
world
withouthope. All this
jects,
supposed infinity
in whichtheimmersionofallevanisheswiththisoneabout-turn,
oftheobjectiveand,
goryhas to clearawaythefinalphantasmagoria
in
leftentirelyto its own devices,rediscoversitself,not playfully
theearthly
worldofthings,but seriouslyundertheeyesofheaven
added).22
(emphasison phantasmagoria
Robertson's spectacle enacts Benjamin's contrastbetween
Interestingly,
the temporarilyfallenallegoryand the permanentlyfallenphantasmagoria. Robertson's phantasmagoriaoftenended withthe topos of the memento
moridear to the allegoricalimagination.Displayingthe "skeletonof
a youngwoman standingon a pedestal," Robertsonpronounced thefollowingadmonition: "'You who have perhaps smiled at my experiments,
beauties who have experienced a fewmoments of terror... this is the
fatethatis reservedforyou, thisis whatyou willbe one day. Remember
the phantasmagoria."'23While related to the allegorical memento
mori,
Robertson's finalgesturedivergesfrom the final allegorical use of this
topos as it is described by Benjamin. Ratherthan turningenchantment
into death, the finalmoment of allegoryturnsdeath into eternallife,a
transformationwhich Benjamin invokes by citing a passage from
21. Benjamin,"Paris,theCapitaloftheNineteenth
Century"158. Fora generaldishis 17th-century
cussionof how Benjamintranslates
conceptof allegoryintothe 19th
The Importance
in theWorldoftheCommodity:
see LloydSpencer,"Allegory
century,
34 (1985).
of Central
Park,"NewGerman
Critique
22. WalterBenjamin,TheOrigin
Drama,trans.JohnOsborne(LonTragic
ofGerman
don: New LeftBooks,1977)232.
22 February1800; quoted in
des spectacles,
23. From an account in Le Courrier
Coissac 27.
98
MargaretCohen
fromthe
Lohenstein:
"'Yea,whentheHighestcomesto reaptheharvest
thenI, a death'shead,willbe an angel'scountenance."'24
graveyard,
In his Mimoires,
Robertsonmakesexplicitthathis spectaclecharacterizesa worldin whichthe possibilityof theologicaltranscendence
has been lost. Recountinghis interestin the supernaturalinvestigationsof the 17th-century
Jesuit,FatherAthenasiusKircher(whowas,
not so coincidentally,
the inventorof the magic lantern),Robertson
writes:"FatherKircher,itis said,believedin thedevil,and theexample could be contagious,forFatherKircherwas endowedwithsuch
greatknowledgethatmanypeople would be temptedto thinkthatif
he believedin thedevil,he had good reasonsforthis."25Robertson's
attemptsto imitatethe occult knowledgeof Kirchersoon revealto
him,however,thedivideseparatingthelate 18thfromthe 17thcentuhe goes on to tellus, as consolation
ry.He inventsthephantasmagoria,
forthisdivide:"'The devilrefusing
to communicateto me thescience
of wonders,I set myselfto makingdevils,and mywand had onlyto
move in order to force the whole infernalprocessionto see the
substitute
forthe auTurningto technologyas an imperfect
light."'26
thenticallysupernatural,Robertsonassociates the phantasmagoria
withthesame disappearanceofthereligiousdemonicas Benjamin.In
to linkhistechnological
creationto some sort
nonetheless,
continuing,
of supernaturalpower,Robertsonnot only mocksthe demonic but
also pointsto thedemonicpotentialofhumaninvention.
His phantasofthe
magoriathuswell expressesBenjamin'sMarxistunderstanding
"the
in
evinced
new
their
creations"
by
strangely
supernatural
power
a
created
rather
than
forms,
powerhumanly
ideologicallytransposed
in
theological origin.
WhileBenjamin'sfamiliarity
is difficult
withRobertson'swritings
to
italtersneitherhisinterest
in thetechnological
determine,
phantasmapremisethatBenjaminprivileges
gorianor myfundamental
phantasas
the
A
Passagen-Werk's
magoria
potentialallegory. synecdocheforthe
culturalproductsof the Parisian19thcentury,thisconceptis suffito invokethetheoretical
apparatusBenjaminuses to
cientlypolyvalent
rendertheseproductsmeaningful.
24.
25.
Benjamin, TheOriginofGermanTragicDrama 232.

et anecdotiques
du physicien-aironaute
Memoiresrecr'atifs,
E.-G. Robertson;
scientifiques,
quoted in Coissac 20.

26. Coissac 20.
Phantasmagoria 99
Benjamin's
and Benjamin's
Dream
Marxist-Psychoanalytic
Phantasmagoria
In givingan account of the phantasmagoria'shistoricalorigin,I
have stressedabove all thisconcept'srelationto Benjamin'sMarxist
concerns.But Benjamin'sinterestin the phantasmagoriaextends,I
of
would suggest,beyonda concernwiththeideologicaltransposition
materialrealityin a commodifiedworld.The psychologicalsignificance of the conceptalso suitsit to invokethepsychoanalytic
theory
thatBenjaminfuseswithMarxismto explainwhyideologicaltranspoform.
sitiontakesdisfigured
The Passagen-Werk's
fusionof Marxistand psychoanalytic
theoryis
notonlyone ofitsgreatestseductionsbut also one ofitsmostrecalcitrantaspects,largelybecause Benjaminneverclearlyworkedout the
ofthedisfigudetailsofthisfusion.Benjaminused Freud'sdescription
rationsproducedby repressionto characterize
theopacityofideologi- the "expression"thatwe saw him substitute
cal transposition
for
in thepassagefromKonvolutK quoted above. But
Marx's"reflection"
whethermorethanaestheticfactorsmotivatethecomparisonofideolis a questionwithwhich Benjamin
ogy to repressedrepresentation
struggledthroughoutthe 1930's.27 Buck-Morssgivesthe mostcohercommentson the subof Benjamin'sfragmentary
entsystematization
she
translation
of
Freudiandreamthewhen
discusses
ject
Benjamin's
in a collective
to
interest
the
collective
ory
sphere.PositingBenjamin's
unconsciousthatis class-bound,she refutesAdorno'schargethatthe
arcades'dreamingcollectiveis a classlesscollective."Class differentiationswereneverlackingin Benjamin'stheoryofthecollectiveunconscious,"Buck-Morsswrites,"indeed,even in his earliestformulatiqos
of Marx'stheoryof the
he consideredit an extensionand refinement
the
collective
dream
manifested
the ideologyof the
superstructure:
thatBenjamingivesto Marxisttheory,see
27. On the psychoanalytic
inflection
Buck-Morss'sessays"RedeemingMass Cultureforthe Revolution,"NewGerman
CriNewLeftReview128
Writer,"
tique29 (1983),and "WalterBenjamin- Revolutionary
On Walter
ed. Gary
(1981). See also Tiedemann's"Dialecticsat a Standstill,"
Benjamin,
Smith (Cambridge,MA: MIT Press, 1986); Bernd Witte,"Krise und Kritik.Zur
Zusammenarbeit
BenjaminsmitBrechtin denJahren1929-1933,"PeterGebhardtet
- Zeitgenosse
derModerne
vol.
al., Walter
Benjamin
(MonographienLiteraturwissenschaft,
30 [Kronberg:
Verlag,1976]);and Winfried
Scriptor
Menninghaus'ssectionon therelationbetweenthe Freudianmythand the Benjaminiandream in "WalterBenjamin's
a surrealist
BarbaraKleineroffers
viewof
Benjamin.
Theoryof Myth,"also in On Walter
the matterin "L'eveil comme categoriecentralede l'experiencehistoriquedans le
de Benjamin,"as do, less successfully,
RitaBischofand ElisabethLenkin
Passagen-Werk
surreelledu reveet de l'histoiredans les Passagesde Benjamin."These
"L'intrication
etParis(Paris:Editionsdu Cerf,1986).
lasttwoessaysare publishedin Walter
Benjamin
100
MargaretCohen
dominantclass."28Buck-Morss'sargumentis richand sophisticated,

butto understandBenjamin'sinterest
in thephantasmagoria,
itis imto
consider
one
of
his
about
portant
hypotheses
ideology'srepressed
thatBuck-Morssneglects.This consideration
character
suggestsBenjamin'sturntowardsthephantasmagoria
as theobverseofhisturnaway
fromthe dream.
Buck-MorsscitesBenjamin'sambiguouscomparisonofideologyto
the dream of an overfedsleeper- a comparisonwhichfollowsthe
passage fromKonvolutK on the expressivecharacterof the superstructure- in order to argue "the bourgeois class .. . [as] the genera-
torofa collectivedream."29Butthecause ofideologicaldistortion

positedbyBenjamin'scomparisonis,in fact,moreambiguousthanBuckMorss'scoherentaccountofitallows.WhenBenjaminwrites"theeconomicconditionsunderwhicha societyexistscome to expressionin
stomthesuperstructure,
just as withsomeone sleeping,an overfilled
it
of
'determine'
the
contents
the
ach, although may causally
dream,
findsin thosecontentsnot itscopied reflection
but ratheritsexpression," he suggeststhe dream as "causally'determined"'not only,as
would haveit,bytheunconsciousprocessesof
Freudand Buck-Morss
ofthematerialrealm(PW
thesleeper,butalso bytheexcessiveactivity
If
his
to
we
translate
the
495).30
bellyof thesocial body,we
metaphor
inferthatthedreamwillbe determinedby "the economicconditions
underwhicha societyexists."Describingthedreamthatis ideologyas
theproductof obscuredforcesof production,Benjaminembarkson
an enterprise
whichwillfinditsfullelaborationin Althusser.31
True,
he neitherrepresentsthe forcesof productionin unconsciousterms
theirrelationto thesleeper'sunconscious,buthe nonenorarticulates
thelessproposesdisfigured
ideologyas causallydeterminedby an objective materialrealm. Benjamin's interestin desubjectivizingthe
realmthatproducesdisfigured
ideologybecomesincreasingly
apparent as his workon the arcades projectproceeds.Notably,Benjamin
grappleswiththisquestionin "On Some Motifsin Baudelaire,"where
28. Buck-Morss229.
29. Buck-Morss229.
of thispassage. See BuckmodifiedBuck-Morss'stranslation
30. I have slightly
Morss229.
is not,I suspect,co31. Buck-Morss229. The Althusserian
ringto thisenterprise
incidental;thereexistsmuch evidencethatBenjamin,likeAlthusser(via Lacan),defusionofMarxand Freud.
rivedhis idea ofthematerialunconsciousfroma surrealist
a Post-Realist
in myforthcoming
Towards
I discussthismatterextensively
Theory
ofIdeoloand Walter
gy:Paris,Surrealism,
Benjamin.
Phantasmagoria 101
Benjamin's
thesubject'sFreudianmannerofrepresenting
objectiveconditionsbecomes a responseto thetransformation
ofnatureintosecond nature.
If Benjaminsees thedreamas a temptingpivotbetweenMarx and
Freud,it is not onlybecause it occupies a centralpositionin Freud's
theoryof repression,but also because Marx describesideologyin
dream-like
terms.32
Nonetheless,thedream'spsychiccausality(atleast
in a Freudianworld)preventsitfromencompassingthematerialcomof
role forBenjaminin theformation
ponentwhichplaysa definitive
in
an
to
the
dream
the
raises
such
Adorno
objection
ideology.
Hornbergletter:
If the disenchantment
of the dialectical
imageas a "dream"
it
the
token
under
thespellofboursame
falls
it,
by
psychologizes
Forwhoisthesubjectofthedream?...Thenogeoispsychology.
consciousness
wasinvented
attentionofcollective
onlyto divert
tionfromtrueobjectivity
anditscorrelate,
alienated
subjectivity.33
WhenBenjaminturnsfromideologyas dreamto ideologyas phantasof the 1935 Parisexpose,he seemsto acmagoriain his 1939 rewrite
Adorno's
knowledge
objections.However,in order to understand
how thephantasmagoria
solvestheproblemofthedream'ssubjective
needsto be clarified.
the
agency, concept'spsychoanalytic
significance
Like the dream, the mentalphantasmagoriais an irrationalphenomenonwhose psychically
motivatedcontentFreudwould seek to
reveal.ButwhileFreudindubitably
demonstrates
thesubjectiveorigin
of the dream,his successwithseeminglysupernatural,
wakingoccurrencesis lessassured.WhileFreudsuggeststheseexperiencesto be the
hisambiguousexplanationsofthemin
productsofpsychicrepression,
"The 'Uncanny"' amplydemonstratethattheyare also responsesto
collectivehistoryand to objectiveeventswhich,at times,entirely
blur
the distinctionbetween objectiveand subjectivecausality.34
Castle
ofthehistormakesa similarpointwhenshe discussesthesignificance
forFreud'sattemptto masterghostlyoccurrence.
ical phantasmagoria
She writes:
32. As theepigraphto KonvolutN, Benjamincitesa passagefromMarx'sletterto
ArnoldRuge about Parisas "the newcapitalofthenewworld":'"The reformofconsciousnessconsistsonlyin this:to wake theworld. .. fromthe dreamof itself'"(PW
Reader,ed.
570). (KarlMarx,letterto ArnoldRuge, September1843, TheMarx-Engels
RobertTucker[NewYork:Norton,1978] 12).
and Politics
33. Adorno to Benjamin,Aesthetics
112-13.
occurseitherwhenrepressed
34. Freudwrites,
forexample:"An uncannyexperience
102
MargaretCohen
Freud struggled
withthe paradoxesof spectralization,
largelyby
to
define
a cognitivepractice- psychoanalysis
attempting
whichwould exorcisethese"ghostlypresences"once and forall.
But ... Freudneverfullyescaped thepervasivecrypto-supernaturalismof early19th-century
psychology.35
If Benjamin turnsfromthe dream to the phantasmagoria,I would suggest thatit is preciselybecause phantasmagoricalmental activityproves
problematic for Freud. A moment when Freud's recuperationof psychological processes for subjective causalitystartsto break down, the
phantasmagoria liberates Benjamin from "the spell of bourgeois psychology" withinthe terms of bourgeois psychologyitself.36
"A LastPhantasmagoria":
Benjaminas Phantasmagorian
Benjamin concludes his 1939 expose by designatingas phantasmagorical the ideological product thatis criticalof ideology. We have seen
him call Blanqui's Eternite
par les Astresa "last phantasmagoria" that
"implicitlyincludes an acerbic critique of all the others" (PW 75). To
conclude our examination of Benjamin's interestin the phantasmagoria, we need to understand why he uses the term in a fashion opposed to his use of it in the essay's previous sections. If the phantasmagoria's polyvalence in the realm of ideological mystificationis clear
enough, what aspect of this concept suits it to designate practices of
ideological critique?
The answer to thisquestion lies as much in Benjamin's understanding of contemporarycritical activityas in the phantasmagoria itself.
Throughout the Parisian production cycle, Benjamin states that the
Enlightenment's critical procedures no longer function in today's
world.37With all experience saturatedby the phantasmagorical power
or whentheprimitive
infantile
becomplexeshavebeen revivedby some impression,
liefswe have surmountedseem once more to be confirmed.Finally,we mustnot let
our predilectionforsmoothsolutionand lucid expositionblind us to the factthat
these two classes of uncannyexperienceare not alwayssharplydistinguishable."
Edition
of
SigmundFreud,"The 'Uncanny"' [Das 'Unheimliche'](1919), TheStandard
the CompletePsychological
WorksofSigmundFreud,vol. 17, ed. James Strachey (London:
HogarthPress,1953-74)249.
35. Castle59
36.
37.
Adorno to Benjamin, Aesthetics

and Politics113.
See, for example, One-WayStreet's"Imperial Panorama," in One-WayStreetand
trans.Edmund Jephcottand KingsleyShorter(London: New Left

OtherWritings,
Books, 1979).
103
of the commodity,even the criticcannotachievethe distancedand

relationto his/herobject necessaryfor rational
multi-dimensional
is a matterof correctdistancing,"writes
"Criticism
thought.
[Kritik]
in
"It was at home in a worldwhereperStreet.38
Benjamin One-Way
spectivesand prospectscountedand whereitwas stillpossibleto takea
standpoint.Now thingspresstoo closelyon human society.The 'unBecause of theimpossiclouded,' 'innocent'eye has become a lie.""39
of
rational
can no longer
critical
distance,
bility gaining
demystification
be thecritic'stask.Rather,thecriticmustseekto appropriatethedistortedand distorting
to ideologipower of ideologicaltransposition
callydisruptiveends.
When Benjaminuses the phantasmagoria
to designatecommodity
culture'sacerbiccritique,he solves a problemthataccompanieshis
of criticalactivity:
redefinition
how to represent
post-Enlightenment
when
its
breaks
traditional
criticalthought
configuration
metaphysical
down?For in invalidating
"Kritik,"Benjamindeprives
Enlightenment
forcriticalknowledge
himselfof the traditional
rhetoric
metaphysical
discourse
as well. Followingtraditionalmetaphysics,
Enlightenment
its
between
valid
and
non-rational
rational
mystified
maps opposition
thoughtonto thefieldof physicalvision.Figuringrationalthoughtas
thenaturalvisionofnaturalobjects,itrepresents
mystified
thoughtin
or
as
aided
vision
as
a
either
technologically
technologiopposition
callyproducedshow(theprocessionin Plato'scaveis thefirst
phantasmagoria).Benjaminhimselffiguresrationalthoughtbyemployingthe
visual tropesof Enlightenment
discourse,as the previouslyquoted
Street
makesclear.But thesetropesdo not adepassagefromOne-Way
criticalactivity
which
quatelyencompasstheconceptofcontemporary
A
form
of
that
is
rational
sets
forth.
neither
entirely
Benjamin
thinking
norentirely
notonly
mystified,
Benjamin'scriticalactivity
transgresses
to Enlightenment
a conceptualoppositionfundamental
epistemology
discourseinvokesto
butalso thephysicalpracticesthatEnlightenment
infuseitsconceptswithlife.
ofcontemporary
critical
In ordertoexpresshisunderstanding
activity,
must
devise
of
his
of
which
the
hence
own,
figures
phantasmaBenjamin
theParisianproduction
cycle,
goriais butone lateexample.Throughout
critiqueas the disruptiveapproBenjaminrepresentscontemporary
intovisualtermshis
translating
priationofexistingvisualtechnologies,
38.
39.
Benjamin, One-WayStreet89.
Benjamin, One-WayStreet89.
104
MargaretCohen
ofcriticalactivity
as thedisruptive
of
his understanding
appropriation
ideologicaltransposition.
Benjamin'snew criticaltropes,we notice,
hold a chiasmicrelationto theEnlightenment
rhetoric
theysupersede.
vision
to
with
artificial
and
Associatingcritique
suggestitsnon-rational
asserts
that
such
aspects,Benjaminsimultaneously
mystified
critique
givesvalid access to the way thingsare. Benjamin'snew tropesthus
in orthodoxEnlightenment
fashionwhilerefusemployvisualrhetoric
on
ing the conceptualoppositionbetweenreason and mystification
visualrhetoric
is based. InvokingEnlightenment
whichEnlightenment
for
discourseonlybetterto confuseitsterms,Benjamindevisesfigures
criticalactivity
whichperformon traditional
rhetoric
epistemological
the disruptionthattheypropose as criticalpraxis.
AmongthevisualtechnologiesBenjaminexploresto figureideological illumination,advertising
and cinema are prominent.Benjamin
forms
also investigates
theexpressivepotentialofvarious19th-century
of popular spectacle- stereoscopes,panoramas,mechanicaltoys,
and magiclanternshows- whichattracthimfortheirhistoricalcontentas well. ButthefactthatBenjaminconcludeshis 1939 Parisianexthe disruptivemanipulationof ideologyas
pose by characterizing
thefigurative
suggeststhathe privileges
potentialof
phantasmagorical
the phantasmagoria.Undoubtedly,Benjamin's interestin the "last
derivesprimarily
fromthephantasmagoria's
phantasmagoria"
polyvalentabilityto figureideologicalmystification.
We shouldnot,however,
overlookfeaturesof thephantasmagoria
thatsuitit to expressBenjamin's visionof contemporary
ideologicalcritique.
When the originalphantasmagorian
summonedup the ghosts,he
a
critical
whose
performed
gesture
ambiguousrelationto rationality
the
rational
status
of
the
recalls
criticalgesturevalued
contemporary
byBenjamin.Turningsupernatural
beingsintotheproductofhuman
as
he
maintained
their
even
form,Robertson
ingenuity
supernatural
the
demonic
rationalized
and
demonized
rational
simultaneously
the
More
thought.
importantly, technologicalphantasmagoriaaptly
expressesthe relationof Benjamin'smethodof ideologicalillumination to standardproceduresof Marxistculturalcritique.We return
hereto Marx'smetaphorforideology,butviewitfromtheotherside.
Marx'smetaphorof thecameraobscura
bothideologyand
represents
in
critical
standard
terms.
knowledge
Enlightenment
Opposingthedark-
ened space of ideological illusion to the sun-filledlandscape outside,

Marx suggestscriticalactivityas the passage fromtechnologicalspectacle
to natural world. Marx's Enlightenmentfigurationof knowledge well
105
expresseshisfaithin theilluminating
powerofrationalcritique.Butfor
this
of
understanding ideologyrendersMarx's (and MarxBenjamin,
ofcritical
ism's)Enlightenment
conceptionand figuration
activity
questionable.Scattered
thearcades'methodological
is
throughout
fragments
that
Marxism
can
make
use
of
critical
reason
Benjamin'ssuggestion
only
ifit expandsMarx'simplicitchallengeto the possibility
of reasonin a
commodified
world.Benjamin'spolemicalattackon theEnlightenment
in Marxismis, ofcourse,a criticalPandora'sbox
suppositions
inhering
thatis debatedfromthe momentAdorno'sstingingHornbergletter
takesBenjamin'sambiguousdialecticalimagesto task.Withoutraising
itslid,I wishonlyto suggestthatittakestheformofthephantoscope.It
is Marxwho introduces
theconceptofthephantasmagoria
to designate
of
culture's
non-rational
commodity
ideologicaltransposition thematerialworld.When Benjaminuses the conceptto designateideologycrimomentin Marxto correct
tique,he thusinvokesa post-Enlightenment
of
"Kritik"
the Enlightenment
understanding
upon whichMarxrelies.
In the process,Benjaminprovidesa technologicalfigurefor critical
visionofthecritic'staskknowledgethatmodifiestheEnlightenment
in
The lastphantasmaobscura.
exemplified Marx'snotionofthecamera
obscura
intoartificial
show.
goriaturnstheworldas itis outsidethecamera
Unable to have directaccess to the sun-filledreal, criticalthought
remediesenclosurein the cave of ideologyby producingtechnological
works
spectaclesof itsown. In so doing,the criticalphantasmagorian
witha mediumofillumination
thatitselfencapsulatesBenjamin'spostin
Enlightenment
challenge.The firekindledby the phantasmagorian
the unfiltered
the phantoscopetransforms
naturallightof rationalunintoan energysomewherebetweennatureand art.Stolen
derstanding
forman,thislightofthegodsis also thefirst
Prometheus
technology.
by
1928
descriptionof thearcadesprojectsuggeststhathe
Benjamin's
conceivedof his own projectof criticalilluminationas a phantasmagoricalspectaclefromits inception.In the letterto Scholem quoted
above,Benjamindescribeshisworkas a ghostlyprocession:"The profanemotifswillparade by in hellishintensification.""
This important
letteralso providesa provisionaltitleto thePassagen-Werk,
as Benjamin
in
a
his
form:
arcades.
"Parisian
shapes spectacle
specific19th-century
A dialecticalfterie."4"
Whilethefairytale
aspectsof Benjamin'sinterest
40. Benjamin,Briefe
455.
derivesfroma
41. Benjamin,Briefe
455. The word "theory,"not coincidentally,
Greekword meaningspectacleas well as viewing.
106
MargaretCohen
in 'fierie"have been amplydiscussed,theword'sspecificmeaningfor

The term'fjerie"was introduced
the 19th-century
needsto be clarified.
in 1823 Paristo designatea theatrical
spectacle"wheresupernatural
characters appeared ...
and which demanded considerable scenic
means,"notablymechanicalones.42Allthemodeduringthemiddlepart
of the century,
theseproductionsled Flaubertto comment,"'Along
withsucklingpig,thefieneis theheaviestthingthatI knowof.'"43
as a visualemblemfor
Benjamindid notmaintaintheawkwardfterie
his Parisianprojectof representation
and critique.Exploringthe povisualtechnologiesto figure
tentialofvarious19th-and 20th-century
his visionof criticalactivity,
Benjaminmostoftensettledon the cinemediumwitha mobileviewpointnotunlikehis
ma, a state-of-the-art
own: "Method of thiswork:literary
montage.I have nothingto say.
in
to
he
the
wrote
Konvolut's
sectionN (PW 574). Far
Only show,"
frominvalidatingmy argumentforthe expressivecentrality
of the
in
phantasmagoria Benjamin'sParisianproductioncycle,Benjamin's
ofhis own practicein cinematictermsfortifies
it.What
representation
A formofvisualrepresentais thephantasmagoria
butproto-cinema?
tioncrucialto thepre-history
ofcinema(in theprocessoffiguring
out
how to use the magiclanternto phantasmagorical
Robertson
effect,
made it easilyportable),the phantasmagoriaproceeds by the same
cinematicmontage.
principleofjuxtapositionthatunderwrites
To proposeBenjaminas a phantasmagorian?
The ghostofAdorno,
a
need
not
fearthatI shallsugmaking terrifying
grimace,appears:"you
in
should
survive
unmediatedor
that
yourstudyphantasmagoria
gest
thatthe studyitselfshouldassumea phantasmagorical
If
character.""44
Adornorepeatedly
of
the
the
it
demands "explosion
phantasmagoria,"
is perhapsbecause thisgrandinquisitorof rationality
scentsthe chalhis
to
fondness
own
fortheterm.45
lenge
activity
impliedbyBenjamin's
in
his
does
not
material
buthe
Benjamin
mystify
reality
phantasmagoria,
does notexactlydemystify
iteither.Rather,materialreality
becomesone
morerepresentation
in his magictheater,
partof a ghostlyconceptual
of 19th-century
Paris,
paradethatincludesnotonlythephantasmagorias
butconceptsofthebase and superstructure,
ofrelationsofproduction,
42.
43.
Le Robert,vol. 4, 444.
Le Robert,vol. 4, 444.
and
44. TheodorAdorno,letterto WalterBenjamin,10 November1938,Aesthetics
Politics127.
and Politics113.
45. Adorno to Benjamin, Aesthetics
107
and of mediationand demystification

as well. Adorno may bristle.
And Benjamin,it should be pointedout,is hardlymore comfortable
withthe phantasmagoria'senchantingpossibility.Forced to employ
such proceduresbecause Enlightenment
criticalpracticesno longer
for
an end to the world of
function,Benjamin ultimatelyhopes
vision.WhenBenjaminconceivesofcriticism
as enphantasmagorical
chantment,however,he does more than mourn criticism'sdecline.
criticism's
commercewithmagic,he drawsattentionto its
Admitting
to
demons and presstheminto positive
locate
contemporary
power
service.
political
is - to use an ex"The worlddominatedby itsphantasmagorias,
writesBenjaminin theconpressionfromBaudelaire modernity,"
clusion to the 1939 "Paris, Capital of the 19th Century"(PW 77).
withmodernity
Benjamin'scriticalassociationof the phantasmagoria
natureof
in no wayinvalidatesmyargumentforthephantasmagorical
more
If Benjaminis one ofmodernity's
acerbiccritics,it
his criticism.
seemsto me indisputablethathe remainspreoccupiedwithmodernity'sdefiningconcerns.As do we. And hence,myvisionoftheelaboratedphantasmagoria
fading,I do notonlycry,behold itwas a dream.
of
withprolifruins
we are confronted
the
postmodernism,
Surveying
instead
of
that
the
reality
eratingrepresentations
producedthem,or
betweenrealityand representawiththefactthatthedistinction
rather,
tionhas stoppedmakingsense. Such realization,however,in no way
dispels,butratherexacerbatestheneed forconcretematerialpractice.
susI am nottoo easy,either,withBenjamin'scriticalphantasmagoria,
can
be
to
its
ends
which
enchantment
of
the
put.
mystifying
picious
But perhapsthisverydangerindicatesitsvitality.

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Walter Benjamin's Phantasmagoria

Author(s): Margaret Cohen

1fthc Palsstge-l4 k aFr

Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"158, 160.

par les Astres,writes Benjamin, is "a last phantasmagoria of cosmic

While Marx's use of the phantasmagoria explains why Benjamin

humancreationsa strangesortof perceptiblepresence,but thispresin eithera literalor a figurencewould hardlyseemto be illuminating,

tatorsa parade of ghosts.

10. Benjamin,"Paris,the Capitalof the NineteenthCentury"162.

If we examine the phantasmagoria as a 19th-centuryspectacle, we

Robertson's performancereached the followingspectacular climax:

the Committee for Public Safety,Cambon and Barere. What better

"Concerning the doctrine of the ideological superstructure,"writes

invertspainted slides which are themselvesartisticproducts (PW 575).

Benjamin, TheOriginofGermanTragicDrama 232.

quoted in Coissac 20.

dominantclass."28Buck-Morss'sargumentis richand sophisticated,

torofa collectivedream."29Butthecause ofideologicaldistortion

Adorno to Benjamin, Aesthetics

trans.Edmund Jephcottand KingsleyShorter(London: New Left

of the commodity,even the criticcannotachievethe distancedand

ened space of ideological illusion to the sun-filledlandscape outside,

in 'fierie"have been amplydiscussed,theword'sspecificmeaningfor

and which demanded considerable scenic

and of mediationand demystification

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