Villes et images. Possibilités actuelles du Denkbild

This article analyses some aspects of the Denkbild, understood as a fundamental trope for philosophical reflecion on problems and possibilities inherent to the perception of modern metropolitan space. It aims at evaluating if and how it could be still useful to critically question social relationships shaped by urban environment. As is well known, in the Twentieth Century Critical Theory’s philosophers gave the Denkbild a central role in their way of thinking and writing. In particular, Benjamin and Kracauer found in the Denkbild a way to express productively some major aspects of modern material culture. The final aim of this paper is to test the theoretical link between them and Judith Butler’s thought about the possibility to host vulnerability in the Denkbild, regarding it as a tool which allows to overstep some fragilities regarding Butler’s concept, thus deepening the political implications of the “thought-image”.