La città come scena del crimine
Walter Benjamin e le tracce del detective
Abstract
The article explores Walter Benjamin’s multifaceted analysis of the detective story. The detective is one of the many metamorphoses of the flâneur who explores the mysteries of modernity and reports on the ‘dark side’ of the metropolis. Benjamin links the origins and development of the detective story to the development of new optical devices in modernity and the new forms of panoptic control that these optical devices made possible: they multiply the traces of the individual and allow the state to keep a record of everyone. But the detective is also a critique of the bourgeois obsession with possession, secrecy and accumulation. Moreover, by following the traces hidden beneath the surface of the phantasmagoria of progress, the detective becomes a figure of the materialist historian, whose task is to uncover the crimes of the past and redeem the victims of a history of violence and oppression.References
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Benjamin, W. (1995-2000): Gesammelte Briefe. Voll. I-VI, a cura di Christoph Gödde e Henri Lonitz. Franfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Benjamin, W. (1974-1989): Gesammelte Schriften. Voll. I-VII, a cura di Rolf Tiedemann e Hermann Schweppenhäuser. Franfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Benjamin, W. (2000-2008): Opere complete. Voll. I-IX, ed. it. a cura di Enrigo Ganni, Torino: Einaudi.
Brand, D. (1991): The Spectator and the City in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Buck-Morss, S. (1989): The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Cadava, E. (1997): Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Carey, J. (1992): The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880–1932. London: Faber and Faber.
Eagleton, T. (1981): Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism. London: NLB.
Elmer, J. (1995): Reading at the Social Limit: Affect, Mass Culture, and Edgar Allan Poe. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Featherstone, M. (1998): The Flâneur, the City and Virtual Public Life, «Urban Studies», vol. 35, nn. 5–6, pp. 909-925.
Frisby, D. (1994): “The Flâneur in Social Theory”, in K. Tester (a cura di), The Flâneur, London: Routledge, pp. 81-110.
Gilloch, G. (1996): Myth and Metropolis: Walter Benjamin and the City. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Ginzburg, C. (2000): Miti emblemi spie. Morfologia e storia. Torino: Einaudi.
Gunning, T. (2003): The Exterior as Intérieur: Benjamin’s Optical Detective, «Boundary 2», 30.1, pp. 105-130.
Kracauer, S. (1971): Schriften, I: Soziologieals Wissenschaft. Der Detektiv-Roman. Die Angestellten, a cura di Karsten Witte. Franfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Lambert, G. (1988): “The Dangerous Edge”, in R. W. Winks (a cura di), Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodstock: The Countryman Press, pp. 38-56.
Mandel, E. (1988): “A Marxist Interpretation of the Crime Story”, in R. W. Winks (a cura di), Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodstock: The Countryman Press, pp. 209-220.
McDonough, T. (2002): The Crimes of the Flâneur, «October», n. 102, pp. 101-122.
Merivale, P. (1999): “Gumshoe Gothics: Poe ‘The Man of the Crowd’ and His Followers”, in P. Merivale e S. E. Sweeney (a cura di), Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 101-116.
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Poe, E. A. (2018): Obscura. Tutti i racconti. Ed. it. a cura di Giuseppe Lippi. Milano: Mondadori.
Rauch, A. (1996): Culture’s Hieroglyph in Benjamin and Novalis: A Matter of Feeling, «The Germanic Review», vol. 71, n. 4, pp. 253-266.
Scholem, G. (1992): Walter Benjamin. Storia di un’amicizia. Trad. it. di E. Castellani e C. A. Bonadies. Milano: Adelphi.
Shields, R. (1994): “Fancy Footwork: Walter Benjamin’s Notes on Flânerie”, in K. Tester (a cura di), The Flâneur, London: Routledge, pp. 61-80.
Simmel, G. (2011): Le metropoli e la vita dello spirito. Trad. it. a cura di Paolo Jedlowski. Roma: Armando Editore.
Strout, C. (1994): The Historian and the Detective, in «Partisan Review», vol. 61, n. 4, pp. 666-674.
Weidmann, H. (1992): Flânerie, Sammlung, Spiel. Die Erinnerung des 19. Jahrhunderts bei Walter Benjamin. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Werner, J.V., (2001): The Detective Gaze: Edgar A. Poe, the Flâneur, and the Physiognomy of Crime, «American Transcendental Quarterly», vol. 15, n. 1, pp. 5-21.
Winks, R.W., a cura di (1968): The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence. New York: Harper and Row.
Winks, R.W. (1982): Modus Operandi: An Excursion into Detective Fiction. Boston: David R. Godine.
Winks, R.W. (1988): “The Historian as Detective”, in R.W. Winks (a cura di), Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodstock: The Countryman Press.
Benjamin, W. (1995-2000): Gesammelte Briefe. Voll. I-VI, a cura di Christoph Gödde e Henri Lonitz. Franfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Benjamin, W. (1974-1989): Gesammelte Schriften. Voll. I-VII, a cura di Rolf Tiedemann e Hermann Schweppenhäuser. Franfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Benjamin, W. (2000-2008): Opere complete. Voll. I-IX, ed. it. a cura di Enrigo Ganni, Torino: Einaudi.
Brand, D. (1991): The Spectator and the City in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brecht, B. (1989): Werke, vol. 17: Prosa 2. Romanfragmente und Romanentwürfe. Berlin/Frankfurt a.M.: Aufbau/Suhrkamp.
Buck-Morss, S. (1989): The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Cadava, E. (1997): Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Carey, J. (1992): The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880–1932. London: Faber and Faber.
Eagleton, T. (1981): Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism. London: NLB.
Elmer, J. (1995): Reading at the Social Limit: Affect, Mass Culture, and Edgar Allan Poe. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Featherstone, M. (1998): The Flâneur, the City and Virtual Public Life, «Urban Studies», vol. 35, nn. 5–6, pp. 909-925.
Frisby, D. (1994): “The Flâneur in Social Theory”, in K. Tester (a cura di), The Flâneur, London: Routledge, pp. 81-110.
Gilloch, G. (1996): Myth and Metropolis: Walter Benjamin and the City. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Ginzburg, C. (2000): Miti emblemi spie. Morfologia e storia. Torino: Einaudi.
Gunning, T. (2003): The Exterior as Intérieur: Benjamin’s Optical Detective, «Boundary 2», 30.1, pp. 105-130.
Kracauer, S. (1971): Schriften, I: Soziologieals Wissenschaft. Der Detektiv-Roman. Die Angestellten, a cura di Karsten Witte. Franfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Lambert, G. (1988): “The Dangerous Edge”, in R. W. Winks (a cura di), Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodstock: The Countryman Press, pp. 38-56.
Mandel, E. (1988): “A Marxist Interpretation of the Crime Story”, in R. W. Winks (a cura di), Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodstock: The Countryman Press, pp. 209-220.
McDonough, T. (2002): The Crimes of the Flâneur, «October», n. 102, pp. 101-122.
Merivale, P. (1999): “Gumshoe Gothics: Poe ‘The Man of the Crowd’ and His Followers”, in P. Merivale e S. E. Sweeney (a cura di), Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 101-116.
Missac, P. (1987): Passage de Walter Benjamin. Paris: Seuil.
Missac, P. (1988): “Walter Benjamin: From Rupture to Shipwreck”, trad. Victoria Bridges et al., in G. Smith (a cura di), On Walter Benjamin. Critical Essays and Recollections, The Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 210-223.
Poe, E. A. (2018): Obscura. Tutti i racconti. Ed. it. a cura di Giuseppe Lippi. Milano: Mondadori.
Rauch, A. (1996): Culture’s Hieroglyph in Benjamin and Novalis: A Matter of Feeling, «The Germanic Review», vol. 71, n. 4, pp. 253-266.
Scholem, G. (1992): Walter Benjamin. Storia di un’amicizia. Trad. it. di E. Castellani e C. A. Bonadies. Milano: Adelphi.
Shields, R. (1994): “Fancy Footwork: Walter Benjamin’s Notes on Flânerie”, in K. Tester (a cura di), The Flâneur, London: Routledge, pp. 61-80.
Simmel, G. (2011): Le metropoli e la vita dello spirito. Trad. it. a cura di Paolo Jedlowski. Roma: Armando Editore.
Strout, C. (1994): The Historian and the Detective, in «Partisan Review», vol. 61, n. 4, pp. 666-674.
Weidmann, H. (1992): Flânerie, Sammlung, Spiel. Die Erinnerung des 19. Jahrhunderts bei Walter Benjamin. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Werner, J.V., (2001): The Detective Gaze: Edgar A. Poe, the Flâneur, and the Physiognomy of Crime, «American Transcendental Quarterly», vol. 15, n. 1, pp. 5-21.
Winks, R.W., a cura di (1968): The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence. New York: Harper and Row.
Winks, R.W. (1982): Modus Operandi: An Excursion into Detective Fiction. Boston: David R. Godine.
Winks, R.W. (1988): “The Historian as Detective”, in R.W. Winks (a cura di), Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays, Woodstock: The Countryman Press.
Published
2026-03-01
