Benjamin Now: Critical Encounters with The Arcades Project

The Arcades Project is the unfinished, final work of influential cultural theorist, critic, and historian, Walter Benjamin. Until 1999, this huge, unruly manuscript, which provides a more complete picture of the diversity of Benjamin’s work than formerly available, had not been fully translated into English. Benjamin Now is a collection of essays which focuses on the English-language translation of The Arcades Project . While this text’s title refers to its ostensible subject - the 19th century shopping arcades of Paris - The Arcades Project is a mass of cultural, political, and social material presented in the form of a vast montage. Benjamin Now reconsiders the significance of his theories and writings in light of this final project. The contributors gathered in this special issue include leading scholars from modern culture and media, comparative literature and literary studies, art history, philosophy, cultural studies, film studies, and mass culture.