A WALTER BENJAMIN’S DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTER

Abstract

This article seeks to show that, in Walter Benjamin, the destruction does not occur for its own sake, it occurs for the creation of ‘ways’ thus openings, moments of inauguration. However, once this claim is made, what has to be taken up is the ‘moment’ (Augenblick) of destruction. While the project of epistemology may have been distanced, since the ‘moment’ does not ‘know’, what is not distanced is what might be described as the question of judgment. Destruction as way-making is a motif that occurs throughout the text. The activity of the destructive character is further described as ‘space making’ (Räumen) (BENJAMIN, SW 1.541/ GS.IV.1.397). Recalled here is the centrality of what has already been identified as the link between destruction, release and the creation of spaces. Way-making and space creation combine.