Melancholy constellations: Benjamin, Kiefer, Kentridge and the play of mourning

Abstract

Intended as a summation as well as a continuation of several studies on the work of Walter Benjamin, Anselm Kiefer, and William Kentridge, this article proposes to configure Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge in and as a melancholy constellation. "Melancholy constellation" serves here as a theoretical construct of the mobile concepts with which Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge "preposterously" think and perform the imaging of history. On the basis of these mobile concepts, I shall also refer to my theoretical concept of melancholy constellation as a mobile constellation. Furthermore, while melancholia traditionally signifies a state of acedia or immobility, its historical image will be shown to be dialectical -signifying both black bile and inspiration; always involving mobile positions. The dialectics of melancholia will be related to the dialectics of melancholy writing, which in turn is enfolded with my discussion of the performative self-reflexivity at play in the work of Benjamin, Kiefer, and Kentridge.