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The Card Reader: Der Kartenleger.

  • Published In: Diacritics, 2024, v. 52, n. 4. P. 80 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Groom, Amelia 3 of 3

Abstract

Invited to write about the figure of the Card Reader in Walter Benjamin's early text "Fate and Character" (1921), the author of this essay drew a single card from a shuffled tarot deck, and got the Magician. The essay attempts to use the Magician card as a tool in a reading of Benjamin's ideas about cards, readings, and fate. It applies Benjaminian understandings of associative, analogous, allegorical, and archetypal thinking to practices of cartomancy. It draws on various aspects of the Magician card and the mystical Marxist's thought, including games and divination; tricks and tricksters; memes and mimetic faculties; juggling and infinity. It also follows Benjamin and the Magician toward an understanding of fate that is not singular, not final, and not the opposite of will. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Diacritics. 2024/10, Vol. 52, Issue 4, p80
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Social Sciences and Humanities
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:0300-7162
  • DOI:10.1353/dia.2024.a979359
  • Accession Number:191148835
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