Spazi per pensare. Topografia e immagine in Warburg e Benjamin

Abstract

In the context of the late modernity, both Warburg and Benjamin put themselves on a borderline position. From that point of view, they show a common methodological and heuristic issue, consisting in creating “spaces for thinking” (Denkräume) from where it would be possible to redraw in a newly conceived “topography” the metaphysical maps by means of which we have represented our world. This kind of critical operation requires a different focus on the relathionships between writing and image, space and time, and it cannot be separated from an experience (even in a biographical sense) of “ownness” and “extraneity”. Thanks to this experience, the event of discovery outlines itself as an act of remembrance and, at the same time, as a promise for the future.