Allegories of Women in Walter Benjamin's Writings from the 1930s

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Keywords:

teoria crítica, gênero, feminismo, capitalismo

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the theme of gender in Benjamin's texts when his thinking had already been impacted by both surrealism and Marxism. In Baudelaire and Modernity and in Passages, Benjamin addresses the figure of the lesbian as an ideal of virility and the prostitute as the embodiment of commodity fetishism, the regulating principle of society, according to Marx. The aim of this text is to understand to what extent these themes are consistent with the utopia of an emancipated society, insofar as gender binarity is also a form of oppression. It concludes that the dialectical images of gender are a central and not marginal device in his philosophy, despite the fact that much of Benjamin's reception disregards them.

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References

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Published

2024-12-31

How to Cite

Magalhães, P. (2024). Allegories of Women in Walter Benjamin’s Writings from the 1930s. Constelaciones. Revista De Teoría Crítica, (16), 176–193. Retrieved from https://constelaciones-rtc.net/article/view/5500

Issue

No. 16 (2024): Gender relations, sexuality and capitalism in the critical theory of society

Section

Essays

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Copyright (c) 2024 Paula Magalhães

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