Still Resisting Left-Wing Melancholy? Re-Reading Walter Benjamin’s Encounter with Constructivism and Avant-Garde

In 1931 Walter Benjamin coined a concept “Left-Wing Melancholy” to characterize theoretical shortcomings of dominant forms of political art of the time, such as activism and new objectivity. For Benjamin the political impetus of these artistic positions was fixed on showing inequalities and hence offering ultimately somewhat moralistic position as reaction rather than constructing an alternative. Benjamin maintained that this type of melancholic position “is precisely the attitude to which there is no longer in general any corresponding political action. (…) For from the beginning all it has in mind is to enjoy itself in a negativistic quiet”. Against this approach Benjamin called for engaged art forms towards change and construction as a form of resistance. This alternative conceptualization of socially engaged art attempting to transform the current mode of production rather than witnessing torment caused by it, can be traced to Benjamin’s encounter with avant-garde and especially constructivism in photography, cinema, graphic design and architecture. In later reception, and beyond the relationship between arts and politics, the critique outlined by Benjamin has been also utilized to clarify different positions in contemporary political theory in general on how to continue resisting. From now-classical commentary “Resisting Left Wing Melancholy” by Wendy Brown to recent inquiries by Jodi Dean and Enzo Traverso, Benjamin’s reflections are taken into considerations regarding, in which ways (leftist) emancipatory politics and transformative political thought is possible. Following the insight by Boris Groys that Benjamin’s "critique still weighs heavily on any attempt to bring art and politics together”, this paper argues that Benjamin’s reflection on left-wing melancholy can be also addressed from today’s perspective opening up a possibility to expand the dominant positions of art as a form of resistance understood once again primarily as an ethical response or as a straightforward activism. Taking the constructivism and avant-garde out of their strict historical context and instead considering them as certain strategies for political art with actuality also today, I maintain that the encounter between Benjamin’s theory and constructivist and avant-gardist legacy offers complex and much appreciated historical reframing of socially engaged artistic practices as form of resistance beyond plain ethical witnessing where, to quote Benjamin, “less than ever does the mere reflection of reality reveal anything about reality” and instead “something must in fact be built up, something artificial, posed”.