Benjamin’s Passagen-Werk was structured as an awakening from the collective dream-world into history

Evidence

Six chapters were planned in Benjamin’s prospectus for the Passagen-Werk: Fourier or the Arcades'; Daguerre or the Dioramas’; Grandville or the World Exhibitions'; Louis-Philippe or the Interior’; Baudelaire or the Streets of Paris'; Haussmann or the Barricades’. The arcades, panoramas, world exhibitions and interiors were opposed, as decayed architectural residues of the dream-world of the collective, to the streets and barricades, as scenes of awakening into the open space of history and to a dream consciousness capable of producing dialectical images. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 858

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Benjamin’s concept of the collective dream-sleep and awakening dialectic used throughout Critical Theory discourse on modernity. — connects to: Benjamin’s Passagen-Werk notes pursued contradictory research intentions simultaneously. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 799; Aragon’s 1926 work inspired Benjamin’s Passagen project as a modern mythology — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 822; Benjamin saw the masses as perceiving reproducible art through a dream-like consciousness — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 850 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Benjamin saw the masses as perceiving reproducible art through a dream-like consciousness #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 850
• Benjamin’s project aimed to rescue the nineteenth century from reification through spontaneous memory #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 810
• A historical period can itself function as a waking dream #expands (0.80) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 21
• Benjamin believed every sentence carries multiple layers of meaning #qualifies (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 542