“On the Rhythm of Today, which Determines This Work” or on Montage in Benjamin’s Theory of Knowledge

Abstract

The notion of montage, to which Benjamin explicitly refers since the late 1920s, finds particular depth in the history of concepts in Weimar Germany specifically, and the interwar European context more generally. While it is a term widely used in the arts—especially among the historical avant-gardes—its industrial origins shed light on a deeper characteristic of the change in perceptual rhythms introduced by new reproducibility techniques. In this sense, montage becomes a paradoxical concept, as it embodies both the capitalist movement of reproduction and repetition that Benjamin identifies with the eternal return, and also becomes the fundamental critical tool for constructing knowledge with its own proper tempo. Distinguishing between these rhythms allows us to identify Benjamin’s various reflections on montage and his commitment to critical knowledge, primarily present in the Arcades Project and the Artwork in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility.