Images of Modernity. Walter Benjamin and the experience of the threshold

The threshold is a real and metaphorical space. It names a mysterious and complex topology, a space in which inside and outside do not appear as mutually antithetic but rather as indistinct. The threshold is an area of ambiguity between internal and external, that establishes the division between inside and outside and at the same time erases it, and also upsets their inherent opposition. In this sense, the concept of threshold appears as essentially pervaded by a tension. The text aims at illustrating how the image and experience of the threshold are the crucial metaphors for interpreting the intellectual path, the work and the life itself of Walter Benjamin.