This is a critical review of the controversial correspondence between Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin - two of the most significant representatives of the so-called first generation of critical theorists associated with the Institute for Social Research. Refering his letters to the intellectual experience of each of them, this text attempts to provide a reasoned analysis of such intriguing philosophical dialogue far beyond the rigid polarization between "Adornians" and "Benjaminians" - that as a rule has prevailed in their specialized reception inside and outside Brazil. To this end, this article seeks to emphasize the productive counterpoint between Adorno's Negative Dialectics and Benjamin's Arcades Project, taking the construction process of this last work as the gravitational center of both affinities and insoluble dissonances between the two authors. This research is funded by FAPESP.
Adorno; Benjamin; Correspondence; Arcades Project; Dialectical images