ENGLISH

Of ladders and looms. Moving through Walter Benjamin’s ‘Storyteller’

By Erami N.

Book information

Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
521 kB (533975 bytes)
Pages
\14
Library
twirpx
Time added
2017-08-07 07:01:42
Философские дисциплины;История философии;История ф

Description

Article published in «Anthropological Theory» — 2015. — Vol. 15(1). — pp. 92–105.In this article I take a closer look at Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The Storyteller’ by connecting the craft of carpet weaving to storytelling. I reveal that Benjamin has ncoded a ladder in his essay through his seemingly fragmentary ruminations or ‘philosophical observations’. I attempt a genealogy of ‘The Storyteller’, where I recognize that the ladder is an inspiration from Jewish mystical tradition, the Kabbala, where the cycle of life is realized and interpreted. I trace this ladder of experience through my own fieldwork on Persian carpets where I argue the importance of carpet weaving for the art of storytelling and vice versa, and in turn its implications and possibilities for recounting ethnographic accounts. By examining Benjamin’s writing on the craft of the artisan and his concept of experience, I explore the significance of storytelling as an ethnographic and experiential art.

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