Walter Benjamin e a Memória da Comuna

Walter Benjamin’s short text on 1871, enclosed into the notes of his unfinished book about Paris in the 19th Century (1927-1940), remains still enigmatic even today. What did mean the insurrection of Paris Commune for the German migrant in the 1930’s? What sort of hopes did represent, for someone who wrote during thePopular Front (1936-1938), the French social movement and its aborted revolutions since 1789? How do act collective memory and social passions in a moment such as the strikes of 1936? The following article is an attempt to answer to such questions.