Reflexões sobre melancolia e alegoria em Walter Benjamin

Abstract

Allegory and melancholy are two fundamental concepts of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin´s reflections. The search of the origin and the locus of tragic drama in German tradition take place, above all, in the book of The Origin of German Tragic Drama, written in 1928 and thought to be Benjamin´s Habilitation. It´s interesting to point out that, at the same time Benjamin relates the insufficiency of several concepts and reflects on melancholy, he also suggests – at the end of the second part of the book – History could be conceived as tragic drama. Key word in his philosophy, mainly for the understanding of his final writings - his theses on the concept of History - melancholy is the paradigm of prince in tragic drama. Starting from the düreniana winged melancholy, Benjamin leads his thoughts to the extreme to suggest a conception of History that is open, contradicting the dominant historiography, based on positivism. Allegory, as a counterpart of melancholy, appears in the third part of the book denouncing imago mundi´s false appearance of totality. In doing so, allegorical image that is always fragmented and melancholic since it is transitory, keeps reminding us of History´s facies hippocratica.