Walter Benjamin and the Theory of Art History

Abstract

Walter Benjamin's influence on the theory and practice of art history in the English-speaking world has grown substantially in recent years, largely as a result of the increasing availability of his work in translation. But because the art-historical reception of Benjamin has focused primarily on the essays dealing with photography and film, it has largely failed to recognize that Benjamin's texts on the theory of mimesis, on the epistemology of form and perception, and, above all, on the philosophy of history are also of tremendous significance for the history of art.' Indeed, as evidenced by many of Benjamin's works, ranging from the (unfortunately still untranslated) Begrif der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik (The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism) to his posthumously published magnum opus, the Passagen-Werk (Arcades Project),2 the practice of a certain kind of art historyunderstood in a broad sense as the critical, sympto-