The Magic of the Corner: Walter Benjamin and Street Names. Regier, A. Germanic Review, 85(3):189--204, 2010. ![The Magic of the Corner: Walter Benjamin and Street Names [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex This essay begins by considering Walter Benjamin's observation that 'the meeting of two different street names makes for the magic of the 'corner.' ' It argues that the seemingly whimsical topic of street names in fact links a set of major themes of the Benjaminian corpus-especially the issues of language and the city-in a meaningful way. In various writings (Arcades, Berlin Childhood), Benjamin considers how the linguistic, political, social, and metaphysical dimensions of street names mark a dialectical relationship between urban space and language. In analyzing these statements, the essay focuses particularly on the counterintuitive linguistic assumptions that lie behind Benjamin's formulations on street names. Several close readings of relevant passages suggest three separate insights on these matters. First, for Benjamin, the street name illustrates that naming, mimesis, and the structure of urban experience belong together. Secondly, Benjamin's seemingly idiosyncratic view on language is crucial to the formulation of this nexus and, therefore, best given serious consideration when we read his statements on the meaning of urban spaces. Finally, we can gain much if we consider Benjamin's unorthodox views as serious hermeneutic propositions-for ourselves too-rather than as negligible oddities.
@article{ regier_magic_2010,
title = {The {Magic} of the {Corner}: {Walter} {Benjamin} and {Street} {Names}},
volume = {85},
issn = {00168890},
shorttitle = {The {Magic} of the {Corner}},
url = {http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=53843757&site=ehost-live},
doi = {10.1080/00168890.2010.507538},
abstract = {This essay begins by considering Walter Benjamin's observation that 'the meeting of two different street names makes for the magic of the 'corner.' ' It argues that the seemingly whimsical topic of street names in fact links a set of major themes of the Benjaminian corpus-especially the issues of language and the city-in a meaningful way. In various writings (Arcades, Berlin Childhood), Benjamin considers how the linguistic, political, social, and metaphysical dimensions of street names mark a dialectical relationship between urban space and language. In analyzing these statements, the essay focuses particularly on the counterintuitive linguistic assumptions that lie behind Benjamin's formulations on street names. Several close readings of relevant passages suggest three separate insights on these matters. First, for Benjamin, the street name illustrates that naming, mimesis, and the structure of urban experience belong together. Secondly, Benjamin's seemingly idiosyncratic view on language is crucial to the formulation of this nexus and, therefore, best given serious consideration when we read his statements on the meaning of urban spaces. Finally, we can gain much if we consider Benjamin's unorthodox views as serious hermeneutic propositions-for ourselves too-rather than as negligible oddities.},
number = {3},
urldate = {2015-09-25TZ},
journal = {Germanic Review},
author = {Regier, Alexander},
year = {2010},
keywords = {BENJAMIN, Walter, 1892-1940, ESSAY (Literary form), MIMESIS, PUBLIC spaces, STREET names, Walter Benjamin, arcades, city, language, names, streets},
pages = {189--204}
}
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