Words of Light

This text demonstrates that Walter Benjamin articulates his conception of history through the language of photography. Focusing on Benjamin's discussions of the flashes and images of history, it argues that the questions raised by this link between photography and history touch on issues that belong to the entire trajectory of Benjamin's writings: the historical and political consequences of technology, the relation between reproduction and mimesis, images and history, remembering and forgetting, allegory and mourning, and visual and linguistic representation. The book establishes the photographic constellation of motifs and themes around which Benjamin organizes his texts, thereby becoming a lens through which we one can begin to view his analysis of the convergence between the new technological media and a revolutionary concept of historical action and understanding.