CONSTELLATION AS ASSOCIATION: AFFFECT, THE BODY AND THE COMMUNITY IN WALTER BENJAMIN'S TEXTS FROM 1920-1930

Abstract

Benjamin’s essays, written in the 1920s and 1930s, contain a number of representations of deformed bodies, such as a hunchbacked dwarf, deformed animals, etc. These figures reveal the discrepancy between the secular and the divine. In terms of modern social associations, they problematize isolated affects and the body in modern sociality. In this paper, we review Benjamin’s writings from this perspective. We especially reinterpret Benjamin’s concept of the “constellation” as an alternative principle for the formation of social groups and focus on his critical stance on the problem of modern social relations and groupings. Highlighting the actual meaning of the constellation, we suggest ways to understand the concept, as was Benjamin’s intention, and form new, antimodern associations.