ABSTRACT
An early entry in the ‘Ancient Paris’ section of the Arcades Project notes: ‘The
father of surrealism was Dada; its mother was an arcade’ (Benjamin 1999b: 82).
As is clear from his correspondence, from the summer of 1925 Benjamin was
seriously engaged with surrealism and its early works (see Buck-Morss 1989:
253-75; Pensky 1993: 184-210). In a letter to Hugo von Hofmannsthal from 28
December he remarks: ‘the more inclined I am to deal with some topical projects,
especially the books by the Parisian surrealists, the more aware I become of the
difficulty of finding a place somewhere for my ephemeral, although perhaps not
superficial, considerations’ (Scholem and Adorno 1994: 286). This connection
between surrealism and a concern for the ephemeral is significant. As noted in the
previous chapter, Benjamin’s appreciation of the built environment involves an
acute awareness of its transience. This awareness manifests itself in two quite
distinct affective attitudes: melancholic nostalgia and euphoric intoxication.
