Entre dos fines de siglo: Transformaciones de la modernidad

This introduction, bearing the same title as the Jornadas themselves, seeks to place the latter in their context while outlining the contents of this collection of papers by identifying the relationship between, and examining in greater depth, various aspects of epistemic upheaval which have arisen between the end of the last century and this. The article is divided in two parts, which in turn are broken down into various subsections. The first ofthese seeks to justify the definition of the scene and focus, by presenting various typical elements, such as the determining presence of the point of view and filters and linguistic constructs. It is at this point -in the following subsection- that the character who acts as our guide appears, namely Walter Benjamin. The second part, guided by the latter as well as other authors or artists of repute, examines various aspects of this point of inflection: theparadoxical relationship between the development of individualism and the inherent unifarmity in series; the dual nature of the tabula rasa both as flux and limpid surface; and in short, the difficult opening up of the way to a ~new beginningn -or if not the simple relapse into the inane, based on a reconsideration of the problem of the value and of the conditions of identity and cense.