MAKING A MARK

Abstract

ABSTRACTWalter Benjamin believed it was possible “to read what was never written.” His own writing and practices sought both to explain and model how a person might undertake this historical project. Benjamin's essay “On the Mimetic Faculty” provides a through line for the papers collected in this theme issue, which is designed to prompt further work and inquiry into how words—and historical materials broadly construed—might be read not only for their content but for insights about the past that may be evident in their arrangement, appearance, texture, or location. Scholars from history, philosophy, literature, anthropology, and beyond look at cases ranging from premodern Japan to present‐day South Africa to consider how and suggest why scholars might want to “read what was never written.” Together, the articles and commentaries are offered as a record of what has been done, in the eager anticipation of reading what has yet to be written.