‘It is more arduous to honour the memory of the nameless than the renowned. Historical construction is devoted to the memory of the nameless', wrote Walter Benjamin in 1939-40. Around eight years before, he had constructed a diagram of forty-eight names, formed into constellations via a network of lines.* He named those on the diagram as ‘primal acquaintances’ (Urbekanntschaften): family relations, school comrades, mistaken identities and travel companions. Though most of those on the diagram have known or knowable lives, one has always evaded identification: Alice Weylorz, positioned in the top left of the diagram between Asja Lācis (below) and Erich Unger (above). This paper stages a number of possible figurations of Alice Weylorz: as a missing person, a mistaken identity, even an imaginary friend. It asks if the historical task should be devoted to the memory of the nameless, what of the memory of those for whom only a name remains?
*Image courtesy of the Walter Benjamin Archive, ARC. 4° 1598 04 75, the National Library of Israel (detail).
For whom there is no archive
Speaker(s):
Sam Dolbear (Berlin/IMLR); Chair: Anna Nyburg (London)
Organisations:
Event date:
Wednesday, 24 March 2021 - 6:00pm