Berlin Childhood around 1900. A possible catalog of emotions

Abstract

The present work proposes an interpretation of "Berlin Childhood around 1900" considering the presence of emotions as constitutive element of childhood experience. By recovering his childhood memories, Benjamin presents a variety of images of places, objects, people and remarkable episodes in which it is possible to find different emotions. They point out to elements of the past that are still important to the present.

The work aims to propose a catalog of emotions divided into three groups: the first concerns to emotions related to enigmatic situations, whose solution is given by narrator’s perspective that connects the present to the past; the second group will present emotions that refer to fear and the search for protection and shows the weakness that is also a characteristic of childhood experience. Finally, the work aims to show that emotions are associated with mimetic behavior, corporeality and imagination, elements that characterize the childhood experience, giving it intensity and permanence in memory.