The  essay, which is a part  of Málek’s book Modern Melancholy. Allegory, Narrator, Death, is an attempt  to analyze and develop the concept of allegory by Benjamin in the context of his interests  in fashion, seen as a main phenomena  of cultural  modernity. Málek starts with describing Benjamin’s metaphor  of allegory as a ruin and compares it with a similar concept  by Georg  Simmel. Then  he appeals  to the famous definition of “modern  beauty” by Baudelaire  (Benjamin’s favourite poet)  which was essential for the concept of modern allegory, especially in Passagenwerke, although Benjamin emphasized rather  the negative (temporal,  passing, destructive) element of this notion. As the author  shows, there  is a lot of passages in the modern  literature  (ex. in Kafka, Mann, Rilke, Bernhard),  where fashion as such, or particular  piece of clothes (as they decay or come out of fashion) play a role of allegories of the time, death, and modern misery. Málek writes also about  another  figure of modernity  in Benjamin’s writings – a woman, often described as a prostitute or even a bitch, as fragments from Passagenwerke, as well as from Proust and Kafka show. For Baudelaire  and Benjamin a prostitute  and a prostitution  are  the  allegory of modern  writer  who is forced  to sell his works and compete  on  the  market  not  only  with  other  artists,  but  also  with  rising  popular culture.

The  essay, which is a part  of Málek’s book Modern Melancholy. Allegory, Narrator, Death, is an attempt  to analyze and develop the concept of allegory by Benjamin in the context of his interests  in fashion, seen as a main phenomena  of cultural  modernity. Málek starts with describing Benjamin’s metaphor  of allegory as a ruin and compares it with a similar concept  by Georg  Simmel. Then  he appeals  to the famous definition of “modern  beauty” by Baudelaire  (Benjamin’s favourite poet)  which was essential for the concept of modern allegory, especially in Passagenwerke, although Benjamin emphasized rather  the negative (temporal,  passing, destructive) element of this notion. As the author  shows, there  is a lot of passages in the modern  literature  (ex. in Kafka, Mann, Rilke, Bernhard),  where fashion as such, or particular  piece of clothes (as they decay or come out of fashion) play a role of allegories of the time, death, and modern misery. Málek writes also about  another  figure of modernity  in Benjamin’s writings – a woman, often described as a prostitute or even a bitch, as fragments from Passagenwerke, as well as from Proust and Kafka show. For Baudelaire  and Benjamin a prostitute  and a prostitution  are  the  allegory of modern  writer  who is forced  to sell his works and compete  on  the  market  not  only  with  other  artists,  but  also  with  rising  popular culture.