An essay on the fragmentary temporality of Walter Benjamin's "Little Hunchback"

This text presents a free reflection on the question of time from the Benjaminian perspective, in order to recover the philosophical force that emerges from his fragmentary treatment of temporality. Indeed, faced with the great modern conceptualizations of history and memory, Benjamin offers figures attentive to identifying the importance of experiencing discontinuity. In this sense, the figure of the “Little Hunchback” is a gateway into the space-time of childhood and into the ramparts of a memory laden with oblivion, which therefore only reveals itself “in halves” to us in the present. © 2021 De Boeck Superieur. All rights reserved.