ALEGORIA E LINGUAGEM EM WALTER BENJAMIN

Authors

  • Caio Graco Queiroz Maia Universidade Federal de Sergipe

Abstract

This text briefly examines the relationship between allegory and language in the work of Walter Benjamin. First, it examines how Benjamin, in On Language as Such and on the Language of Man (1916), establishes a philosophy of language in which language is not conceived as a means of communication and does not express things external to it, but only itself. It also shows how Benjamin grounds this philosophy in theology, specifically through an interpretation of creation and the fall in Genesis, emphasizing the disharmonious, temporal, and incomplete character that human language acquires following the events in Paradise. In a second moment, these linguistic characteristics are brought into relation with key aspects of allegory as discussed by Benjamin in his 1925 work The Origin of German Tragic Drama. In this work, Benjamin highlights the expressive potential of the allegorical form, insofar as this form, which does not seek symbolic mystical harmony, fully manifests the condition of human language in history.

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Published

2025-07-09