Furio Jesi’s mythological machine and the quote to Walter Benjamin

Abstract

In his cognitive model called “mithological machine”, Furio Jesi proposes to circumscribe the concept of “myth” by means of a technique of critical composition of data and doctrines about the myth and the mythology. The model not only seeks to brave scientific-methodological reasons but also ethical-political ones. It’s about avoiding all the evocation and instrumentalization of myth in view of a political interest. This work analyzes the way as the model of Jesi resumes and develops two motives of Walter Benjamin’s work: (1) the one known as method of the quote without quotation marks and (2) the criticism of the reactionary theories of myth, specifically regarding the rehabilita­tion of Bachofen in the German culture from 1920’s and 1930’s.