From the atrophy of experience to the impossibility of Eros

Abstract

Propelled by the events from their time, a common point can be found in Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) as regards the criticism that both authors have made to culture. This article has as its main aim to analyze the concepts of experience (Erfahrung) and living experience (Erlebnis) as conceived by Benjamin, highlighting the way in which Freud’s notions of conscience and memory stimulated the formulation of Benjamin’s concepts and his theory of shock. To this end, important points from “Experience and Poverty” (1994), “The Storyteller” (1994), “On some motifs in Baudelaire” (1989) and “Beyond the pleasure principle” (2010) will be discussed. Ultimately, the atrophy of experienced will be associated to the Eros theme, based on considerations by Georges Bataille (2017) and Byung-Chul Han (2017) on eroticism. As a result, the contemporaneity of both Freud and Benjamin’s considerations to reflect on the context of today’s societies will be demonstrated, as regards the construction of collective memory and the experience with the Other.