In the course of the 1930’s, the figure of Charles Baudelaire emerged as the central organizing motif in Walter Benjamin’s attempt to develop a comprehensive theory of urban capitalist modernity. The seminar will trace the development of this theory from the mid-1920’s (Origin of German Trauerspiel; Benjamin’s intensive engagement with the European avantgarde movements) through 1940, concentrating on the finished texts that emanated from the great complex of the Arcades Project. Particular attention will be paid to the exchanges between Benjamin and his friends Siegfried Kracauer and Theodor Adorno