Knowledge comes only in lightning flashes,” Walter Benjamin declared. “The text is the long roll of thunder that follows.” This course explores Benjamin’s work and his defining contributions to histories of art, cultural analysis, and media theory: we will seek those flashes, that thunder. Benjamin’s notions of “aura,” “optical unconscious,” “technological reproducibility,” and the “dialectical image,” endure as provocative concepts by which to negotiate the shock effects of “modern times.” With his book Einbahnstraße (“One-Way Street,” 1928) as our guide, the course proceeds in a radiating shape from Benjamin’s examination of Weimar Germany to his insights on 19th and 20th century visual culture at large. From August Sander to Mickey Mouse, we will follow Benjamin’s studies of mass culture and its discontents. Course modules will address Benjamin’s work on photography, film and radio, children’s books, advertising and design, fascism, violence, and history. We will examine contemporaneous developments in art, such as Dada, Surrealism, Constructivism, New Objectivity, and German Expressionism, and Benjamin’s writings on them, complemented by readings in literature, psychoanalysis, political science, and critical theory. Film screenings will enrich our investigations. Throughout, we will nurture continuous inquiry into the implications of Benjamin’s work for our own time.