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Western Philosophers
20th-century philosophy
Name
Walter Benjamin
Birth July 15, 1892,
Berlin, Germany
Death September 27, 1940,
Port Bou, Catalonia
School/tradition Western Marxism, Frankfurt School
Main interests Literary theory, Aesthetics, Technology, Epistemology, Philosophy of language, Philosophy of history
Influenced by Bertolt Brecht, Karl Marx, Johann Jakob Bachofen, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, Gershom Scholem, Charles Baudelaire
Influenced Hannah Arendt, Theodor Adorno, Jacques Derrida, Gershom Scholem, Susan Sontag, Giorgio Agamben, Michael Taussig, José Guilherme Merquior

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (July 15, 1892 – September 27, 1940) was a German-Jewish Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. See also [[Analytic philosophy]] and [[Continental philosophy]] The 20th century brought with it upheavals that produced a series of conflicting developments within Philosophy Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1892 ( MDCCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Events 489 - Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona and is defeated again Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Portbou is a town in the Alt Empordà comarca, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain. Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Technology is a broad concept that deals with a Species ' usage and knowledge of Tools and Crafts and how it affects a species' ability to control and adapt Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature origins and usage of Language. Philosophy of history or historiosophy is an area of Philosophy concerning the eventual significance if any of human History. (born; 10 February 1898&ndash14 August 1956 was a German Poet, Playwright, and Theatre director. The Swiss Anthropologist and Sociologist Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815 &ndash 1887 is most often connected with his research into the matriarchal clans Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist György Lukács (pronounced in IPA dyɶrdyə ˈlukɑtʃ) ( April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno ( September 11, 1903 &ndash August 6, 1969) was a German -born international sociologist Gerschom Scholem ( December 5, 1897 &ndash February 21, 1982) also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno ( September 11, 1903 &ndash August 6, 1969) was a German -born international sociologist Gerschom Scholem ( December 5, 1897 &ndash February 21, 1982) also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and Susan Sontag ( January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American Literary theorist, Philosopher, Giorgio Agamben (born 1942 in Rome) is an Italian philosopher who teaches at the Università IUAV di Venezia. Michael Taussig (born 1940) received his PhD in Anthropology from the London School of Economics and is a professor at Columbia University. José Guilherme Merquior ( Rio de Janeiro, April 22 1941 &mdash Rio de Janeiro January 7, 1991) was a Brazilian diplomat Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1892 ( MDCCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Events 489 - Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona and is defeated again Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. An essay is usually a short piece of writing It is often written from an author's personal point of view. Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text likewise called a " translation Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory and was also greatly inspired by the Marxism of Bertolt Brecht and Jewish mysticism as presented by Gershom Scholem. The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy. In the Humanities and Social sciences, critical theory is the examination and critique of Society and Literature, drawing from knowledge across (born; 10 February 1898&ndash14 August 1956 was a German Poet, Playwright, and Theatre director. Kabbalah (קַבָּלָה lit "receiving" is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mystical aspect of Judaism. Gerschom Scholem ( December 5, 1897 &ndash February 21, 1982) also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and

As a sociological and cultural critic, Benjamin combined ideas drawn from historical materialism, German idealism, and Jewish mysticism in a body of work which was a novel contribution to western philosophy, Marxism, and aesthetic theory. Sociology of Culture, or cultural sociology, is one of the most popular fields of Sociology, particularly in the United States A cultural critic is a Critic of a given Culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society economics and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx ( 1818 - 1883 German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As a literary scholar, he translated Charles Baudelaire's Tableaux Parisiens and Marcel Proust's famous novel, In Search of Lost Time. Les Fleurs du mal (literal trans "The Flowers of Evil" is a volume of French Poetry by Charles Baudelaire. Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (maʁsɛl pʁust (10 July 1871 &ndash 18 November 1922 was a French Novelist Essayist and Critic In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical His work is widely cited in academic and literary studies, in particular his essays The Task of the Translator and The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technical Reproducibility. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit is a 1936 essay by German cultural critic Influenced by Bachofen, Benjamin gave the name "auratic perception" to the aesthetic faculty through which civilization would recover a lost appreciation of myth. The Swiss Anthropologist and Sociologist Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815 &ndash 1887 is most often connected with his research into the matriarchal clans [1]

Contents

Life

Walter Benjamin was born in Berlin on July 15, 1892 into a wealthy Jewish family. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ His father was a banker in Paris and later went to Berlin and became an antiques trader. He was the eldest of three children of Emil Benjamin and Pauline Schönflies Benjamin: Walter (1892-1940), Georg (1895-1943) and Dora (1901-1946). In 1902 Walter was enrolled at Kaiser Friedrich Schule, in Berlin Charlottenburg, concluding his secondary studies only ten years later. Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen Sophia Charlotte (1668-1705 The boy had a fragile physical condition and so, in 1905, he was sent by his parents to a country boarding school in Thuringia, where he spent two years. The Free State of Thuringia (Freistaat Thüringen is located in central Germany. In 1907 he returned to Berlin and to the Kaiser Friedrich Gymnasium.

Benjamin enrolled at Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg in 1912, but at the end of the summer semester returned again to Berlin and enrolled at Friedrich Wilhelm University to continue his studies of philosophy. For other universities in Berlin see List of Universities in Berlin. Benjamin became president of the Freie Studentenschaft, and began to write essays arguing for the need of educational and general cultural change [2]. Failing the re-election in that student's association, Benjamin again took up studies in Freiburg, attending the lectures of Heinrich Rickert. Heinrich John Rickert ( 25 May 1863 – 25 July 1936) was a German philosopher one of the leading Neo-Kantians He was born After visits to Paris and Italy he returned to Berlin. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest

In 1914 World War I started, opposing Germany against France. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Benjamin began translating with great care and interest the French poet Charles Baudelaire. The following year he moved to Munich, continuing his studies at Ludwig Maximilians University, where he met Rainer Maria Rilke and Gershom Scholem. Munich (München; Minga is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München also known as LMU, is a University in Munich and with more Rainer Maria Rilke (also Rainer Maria von Rilke (4 December 1875 &ndash 29 December 1926 is considered one of the German language 's greatest 20th century Poets Gerschom Scholem ( December 5, 1897 &ndash February 21, 1982) also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and His lifetime friendship with Scholem was due not only to the very fact they both were Jewish but, above all, to their shared interest in art. The same year Benjamin wrote a paper on the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin. Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (ˈjoːhan ˈkrɪstiaːn ˈfriːdrɪç 'hœldərliːn in German March 20, 1770 &ndash June 6, 1843

He married Dora Sophie Pollak (née Kellner) (1890-1964) in 1917 and moved to the University of Bern (where he first met Ernst Bloch), and the following year they had a son, Stefan Rafael (1918-1972). The University of Berne is a University in the Swiss capital of Berne. Ernst Simon Bloch (ɛʁnst ˈziːmɔn blɔx July 8, 1885 &ndash August 4, 1977) was a German Marxist philosopher In 1919 Benjamin earned his Ph.D. cum laude with the essay The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism. "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an Academic degree was earned They returned to Berlin, to live with Benjamin's parents, because of financial problems. Walter and Dora separated in 1928, and the next year he moved to the University of Heidelberg where he tried an academic career. The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg ( University of Heidelberg, Ruperto Carola, Heidelberg University, or simply Heidelberg) is a

The Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt School) was founded in 1923. The Institute for Social Research ( German: Institut für Sozialforschung) is a research organization covering topics such as Sociology The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy. Benjamin met Theodor Adorno and became a friend of Georg Lukács (whose The Theory of the Novel, published in 1920, strongly influenced him). Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno ( September 11, 1903 &ndash August 6, 1969) was a German -born international sociologist György Lukács (pronounced in IPA dyɶrdyə ˈlukɑtʃ) ( April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian The economic crisis in Germany caused his father to have serious difficulties in continuing the financial support he gave to Benjamin. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. At the end of 1923 his best friend, Gershom Scholem, emigrated to Mandatory Palestine (which had been occupied by the British Army during World War I). Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. In the following years Scholem tried to persuade Benjamin to join him.

Benjamin's paper "Goethe's Elective Affinities" was published by Hugo von Hoffmansthal in the magazine Neue Deutsche Beiträge in 1924. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809 Hugo von Hofmannsthal ( February 1, 1874 – July 15, 1929) was an Austrian Novelist, librettist, Poet Together with Ernst Bloch, Benjamin spent several months in the Italian island of Capri, writing his habilitation thesis, on The Origin of German Tragic Drama. Capri ( Italian pronunciation Cápri usual English pronunciation Caprí is an Italian island off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries There he first met Asja Lacis, a Bolshevik Latvian actress living in Moscow. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of She would remain an important and lasting intellectual and erotic influence on him.

A year later, The Origin of German Tragic Drama (Ursprung des Deutschen Trauerspiels) was rejected by the Frankfurt University, effectively closing the door to an academic career for the 33 year old scholar. Together with Franz Hessel (1880-1941), he translated the first volumes of the novel In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (maʁsɛl pʁust (10 July 1871 &ndash 18 November 1922 was a French Novelist Essayist and Critic The next year Benjamin began writing for the German newspapers Frankurter Zeitung and Die Literarische Welt, so he could afford living several months in Paris. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city His father died in 1926 and, in December, Benjamin travelled to Moscow to meet Asja Lacis, but found her sick in a sanatorium [3]. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of

He started his monumental and unfinished The Arcades Project in 1927, working on it until his death. The Passagenwerk or Arcades Project was Walter Benjamin 's unfinished lifelong project an enormous collection of writings on the city life The same year he met Gershom Scholem for the last time in Berlin, and considered moving to Palestine. In 1928 Benjamin published One-Way Street and The Origin of German Tragic Drama. In 1929, he was introduced to Bertold Brecht by Asja Lacis, then Brecht's assistant, in Berlin. (born; 10 February 1898&ndash14 August 1956 was a German Poet, Playwright, and Theatre director.

After two years of separation, Benjamin was divorced from his wife in 1930. Avoiding the repressive activities of the Nazi Party and the SA, in 1932 he spent several months on the Spanish island of Ibiza. The, officially National Socialist German Workers' Party, ( abbreviated NSDAP) was a Political party in Germany between 1919 and 1945 The, abbreviated SA, ( German for "Assault detachment" or "Assault section" usually translated as " stormtroop(ers Ibiza (Eivissa is an island located in the Mediterranean Sea about 80 km off the coast of Spain Then, moved to Nice, where he planned to commit suicide. Nice (nis Niçard Occitan: Niça norm or Nissa, Italian: Nizza or Nizza Marittima, Greek With the Reichstag fire, in 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Führer and his dictatorship started the persecution of the Jews. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was subject to an arson attack and as a result seen as the pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately The racial policy of Nazi Germany refers to the policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the so-called " Aryan race " and Benjamin sought shelter in Svendborg, at Bertold Brecht's, and Sanremo, where his ex-wife lived, before moving to Paris. Svendborg is a city in central Denmark, located in Svendborg municipality (population 59040 in 2008 on the island of Funen. Sanremo is a city with about 57000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy.

His financial situation got worse. Benjamin collaborated with Max Horkheimer and received some funds from the Institute for Social Research, which had relocated to New York. Max Horkheimer (February 14 1895 &ndash July 7 1973 was a German Philosopher and Sociologist, and a founder and guiding thinker of Critical The Institute for Social Research ( German: Institut für Sozialforschung) is a research organization covering topics such as Sociology New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous He met other German intellectual and artist refugees in Paris and became friend of Hannah Arendt, Hermann Hesse and Kurt Weill. Hermann Hesse (ˈhɛʀman ˈhɛsə ( 2 July, 1877 — 9 August, 1962) was a German - Swiss poet novelist and painter WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Kurt Julian Weill ( March 2, 1900 &ndash April 3, In 1936 The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction was first published in French by Max Horkheimer (L'Œuvre d'Art à l'Époque de sa Reproductibilité Technique), in the Institute for Social Research's journal (Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung). The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit is a 1936 essay by German cultural critic

In 1937 Benjamin worked on his book The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire, met Georges Bataille, and joined the College of Sociology. Georges Bataille (ʒɔʀʒ baˈtaj ( September 10, 1897 &ndash July 8, 1962) was a French Writer. The College of Sociology ( "Collège de Sociologie" in French was a loosely-knit group of French Intellectuals named after the informal discussion series In 1938 he paid a last visit to Bertold Brecht in Denmark. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Hitler removed the German citizenship from Jews and Benjamin was incarcerated for three months in a camp near Nevers. Nevers ( Latin: Noviodunum, later Nevirnum and Nebirnum) is a commune of central France, the Préfecture

Returning to Paris in January 1940, he wrote his Theses on the Philosophy of History. In June, the Wehrmacht broke the French defense. Wehrmacht (literally "defense force" was the name of the unified Armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945 Benjamin flew to Lourdes with his sister, one day before the Germans entered Paris. Lourdes ( Occitan: Lorda) is a town and commune situated in the southwest of the Hautes-Pyrénées department, lying in the first Pyrenean In August, he obtained a visa to the United States, which had been negotiated by Max Horkheimer. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Attempting to elude the Gestapo, Benjamin failed to reach Portugal (officially a neutral country) through Spain, on his way to the United States. The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Apparently, he took his own life on September 27, 1940 at Portbou, a border town in the Pyrenees, Catalonia, swallowing an overdose of morphine compound, after the group of Jewish refugees he joined was intercepted by the Spanish Police [4]. Portbou is a town in the Alt Empordà comarca, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain. The Pyrenees (Pirineos French: Pyrénées; Catalan: Pirineus; Occitan: Pirenèus; Aragonese: Perinés Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. Medical uses Morphine can be used as an analgesic in hospital settings to relieve pain in Myocardial infarction pain in However, many details of his last days remain unclear and there is a fair amount of speculation, including the theory that he was murdered by Stalinist agents (read more about his Death, below). Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( July 15, 1892 &ndash September 27, 1940) was a German - Jewish Marxist

Works

Among Benjamin's most important works were the following:

Benjamin corresponded extensively with Theodor Adorno and Bertolt Brecht and occasionally received funding from the Frankfurt School under Adorno's and Horkheimer's direction, even after this had moved to New York City. The competing influences of Brecht's Marxism (and secondarily Adorno's critical theory) and the Jewish mysticism of his friend Gerschom Scholem were central to Benjamin's work, though he never completely resolved their differences. In the Humanities and Social sciences, critical theory is the examination and critique of Society and Literature, drawing from knowledge across On the other hand, some later critics, such as Paul de Man, have argued that Benjamin's writings dynamically flow between these different traditions in order to create a kind of internal critique out of their juxtaposition. Paul de Man ( December 6, 1919 December 21, 1983) was a Belgian -born Deconstructionist literary critic and "On the Concept of History" (often referred to as the "Theses on the Philosophy of History"), among Benjamin's last works, is, according to some readers, the closest approach to such a synthesis.

Angelus Novus, by Paul Klee (1920). Benjamin saw in it the "Angel of History".
Angelus Novus, by Paul Klee (1920). Benjamin saw in it the "Angel of History". Philosophy of history or historiosophy is an area of Philosophy concerning the eventual significance if any of human History.

The following is Benjamin's ninth thesis from the essay "Theses on the Philosophy of History":

A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

The Origin of German Tragic Drama

Benjamin's most lengthy completed work is his Habilitation dissertation, the Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels (translated as The Origin of German Tragic Drama by John Osborne). Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries In this study, at once forbiddingly theoretical and painstakingly empirical, Benjamin analyses Reformation-era German politics and culture through the Trauerspiel genre of the 16th-17th century.

The project begins with a lengthy "Epistemo-Critical Prologue" in which Benjamin sets out the philosophical stakes of his work: the combination and elaboration of parts of the Platonic theory of ideas, the Hegelian historical sublation, and the Leibnizian monad. Encapsulating the one within the other, Benjamin gives the Platonic form a historical instantiation, but only in the sense that it is monadic. Within aesthetic objects of study, there is contained the monad of its historical development, and when this monad is placed within a constellation of other objects, it reveals to the scholar the historical development of the idea. Thus, in the Trauerspiel itself, what appears to be an ahistorical accumulation of fragments is instead already in some sense historical.

Within the main text itself, there are two main divisions: first, a distinction between tragedy and Trauerspiel, where Benjamin clears away the interpretations that precede his work, and second, a lengthy discussion of the relation of allegory to symbolism and the way in which allegory might open onto his modified platonic notion of the idea. In the first section, Benjamin notes that tragedy and Trauerspiel differ in their conception of time: the tragedy is eschatological insofar as its plot leads to a defined end-point, where characters and stories reach a fatalistic resolution; whereas the Trauerspiel takes place only in space, time stretches out forever towards the promised but undisclosed Last Judgment, so characters are therefore paralysed from all action and can only wait—thus there is no resolution and no sense of time passing. In short, in Trauerspiel, time is spatialized. Part of what makes Trauerspiele so inscrutable is that their relationship to history is only ever allegorical, in the sense that the play presents fragments and broken shards of history without narrativizing them, as we are accustomed to seeing in most plays. These fragments, when placed on the stage, rather than maintaining a denotative relationship to history, where history is told, the spatial constellation of these fragments reveals a true idea of history. Benjamin's book constantly performs this constellating of monads, presaging in dependent clauses what will be said more fully later, itself constantly reaching back to earlier sections of the book. Benjamin's project, then, is most famously summed up very early in the book, writing, "the baroque knows no eschatology and for that very reason it has no mechanism by which it gathers all earthly things in together and exalts them before consigning them to their end" (p. 66).

In a changing political climate, Benjamin hoped that this book would relate to the German belief in political and historical progress by showing the absolute futility of raw historicism, just as in the Trauerspiel the resuscitation of historical objects and facts is absolutely impossible. Instead, the massive complexity and profound obscurity of the book meant that it fell on largely deaf ears. When submitted as a Habilitation thesis (a higher degree in the German academic system that, after a PhD, gives legal authority to teach in a university), Professor Schultz of Frankfurt University found it inappropriate for his own department of "Germanistik" (the department of German Language and Literature), and passed it off to the department of aesthetics (philosophy of art). The readers in that department called it an "incomprehensible morass" and the university recommended that Benjamin withdraw the thesis in order to avoid the embarrassment of a public rejection. After some consideration, Benjamin did so.

The Arcades Project

Main article: Arcades Project

Benjamin's final, unfinished work, known as the Passagenwerk or Arcades Project, was to be an enormous collection of writings on the city life of Paris in the 19th century, especially concerned with the roofed outdoor "arcades" which created the city's distinctive street life and culture of flânerie. The Passagenwerk or Arcades Project was Walter Benjamin 's unfinished lifelong project an enormous collection of writings on the city life The Passagenwerk or Arcades Project was Walter Benjamin 's unfinished lifelong project an enormous collection of writings on the city life The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The term flâneur comes from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll" It has been posthumously edited and published in its unfinished form.

Benjamin's style

Susan Sontag once remarked that, in Benjamin's texts, sentences do not seem to generate in the ordinary way; they do not lead gently into one another, and do not create an obvious line of reasoning. Susan Sontag ( January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American Literary theorist, Philosopher, Instead, it is as if each sentence "had to say everything, before the inward gaze of total concentration dissolved the subject before his eyes", a style of writing and thinking Sontag calls "freeze-frame baroque. " Sontag writes that "his major essays seem to end just in time, before they self-destruct. "[5] Though Sontag didn't have a full overview of the Arcades Project when she wrote this, her comments apply to that work as well. The difficulty of Benjamin's style can be understood as an essential part of his philosophical project. Fascinated by notions of reference and constellation, Benjamin's goal in much of his later work was less to articulate a coherent position than to use varied intertexts to reveal aspects of the past that cannot and should not be understood within larger, monolithic constructs of historical understanding (the so-called "grand narrative"). In Critical theory, and particularly Postmodernism, a metanarrative (from Meta - Narrative, sometimes also known as a master- or

Through his writings Benjamin identifies himself as a modernist for whom the philosophical merges with the literary: logic-based philosophical reasoning cannot account for all experience, and especially not for self-representation through artistic mediums.

His concerns regarding style are exemplified in his essay The Task of the Translator, in which he argues that any literary translation, by definition, produces deformations and misunderstandings of the original text. In the deformed text, otherwise hidden aspects of the original are elucidated, while formerly obvious aspects become unreadable. Benjamin considers this mortification of the text productive; when placed in a specific constellation of works and ideas, newly revealed affinities between historical objects appear and are productive of philosophical truth.

Death

Walter Benjamin's grave in Portbou
Walter Benjamin's grave in Portbou

Benjamin may have committed suicide in Portbou at the Spanish-French border, attempting to escape from the Nazis. Portbou is a town in the Alt Empordà comarca, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German The circumstances of his death are unclear. He appeared to be ill when he arrived in Portbou, having crossed a wild part of the Pyrenees in refugee fashion, and the party he was with were told they would be denied passage across the border, which would have been a step towards freedom (Benjamin's ultimate goal was the United States). The Pyrenees (Pirineos French: Pyrénées; Catalan: Pirineus; Occitan: Pirenèus; Aragonese: Perinés While staying in the Hotel de Francia, he apparently took some morphine pills and died on the night of 27/28 September 1940. Medical uses Morphine can be used as an analgesic in hospital settings to relieve pain in Myocardial infarction pain in The fact that he was buried in the consecrated section of a Roman Catholic cemetery would indicate that his death was not announced as a suicide. Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service usually religious The other persons in his party were allowed passage the next day, and safely reached Lisbon on 30 September. Lisbon (Lisboa liʒˈboɐ is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. A manuscript copy of Benjamin's "On the Concept of History" was passed to Adorno by Hannah Arendt, who crossed the French-Spanish border at Portbou a few months later, and was subsequently published by the Institute for Social Research (temporarily relocated in New York) in 1942. The Institute for Social Research ( German: Institut für Sozialforschung) is a research organization covering topics such as Sociology

One way of interpreting these facts is that though the entire group of travellers was stopped, Benjamin was in fact the main target. As an emigrant Jew, a radical writer who had made close friends with Brecht and Adorno, and a fierce critic of Nazism he would have been well-known to the Gestapo and it is a well documented fact that the Spanish border police were cooperative with the Germans. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Once he was dead, following this interpretation, there would be no point in holding back the others (who did not know Benjamin). Benjamin certainly was aware that he was risking his life whether he went south or stayed behind in Paris; the latter meant certain death and probably torture at the hands of the Gestapo. It does not seem that he was using any forged identity papers when attempting to cross into Spain, and this would make it easier for the border police to identify him. In all probability Benjamin did not know people who were in the more advanced escape business, and his portliness and distinctive face made it hard for him to disguise himself anyway.

A completed manuscript which Benjamin had carried in his suitcase disappeared after his death and has not been recovered. Some critics speculate that it was his Arcades Project in a final form; this is very unlikely as the author's plans for the work had changed in the wake of Adorno's criticisms in 1938, and it seems clear that the work was flowing over its containing limits in his last years. As the last finished piece of work we have from Benjamin, the Theses on the Philosophy of History (noted above) is often cited; Adorno claimed this had been written in the spring of 1940, weeks before the Germans invaded France. While this is not completely certain, it is clearly one of his last works, and the final paragraph, about the Jewish quest for the Messiah provides a harrowing final point to Benjamin's work, with its themes of culture, destruction, Jewish heritage and the fight between humanity and nihilism. This article is about the concept of a Messiah in religion notably in the Christian Islamic and Jewish traditions He brings up the interdiction, in some varieties of Judaism, to try to determine the year when the Messiah would come into the world, and points out that this did not make Jews indifferent to the future "for every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter. "

An alternative theory of his death considers the possibility that Benjamin was actually murdered by Stalinist agents. He might have earned his place on Stalin's hitlist by the fact that his last book Theses on the Philosophy of History has been read as an analysis of the failures of Stalinism. The lost manuscript could well have been an elaboration of his criticism of Stalinism and its loss not so much an accident as the very cause for the murder. [6][7]

Legacy

Since the appearance of his Schriften in 1955, 15 years after his death, Benjamin's work has been the subject of numerous books and essays. His essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is considered a seminal text, of particular importance to those studying humanities and is often quoted for its relevance to musicology, for example in the books of Michael Chanan. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit is a 1936 essay by German cultural critic Its prescience is more easily felt in the twenty-first century in which mechanical reproduction has increased far beyond the scope of what Benjamin could have imagined. His writings on modernism are valued for being so illuminating and precise at a time when much confusion and derision surrounded the movement and have gone on to set the tone for a more recent generation of critics who continue to unravel the threads of modernism using his example.

Further reading

Primary literature

Secondary literature

References

  1. ^ p. 170, The Reconciliation of Myth: Benjamin's Homage to Bachofen Joseph Mali Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 60, No. 1. (Jan. , 1999), pp. 165-187
  2. ^ Experience, 1913
  3. ^ Moscow Diary
  4. ^ Jay, Martin The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923–1950
  5. ^ Susan Sontag, Under the Sign of Saturn, p. 129.
  6. ^ Did Stalin's killers liquidate Walter Benjamin?
  7. ^ The Mysterious Death of Walter Benjamin

External links


Persondata
NAME Benjamin, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin, Germany
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1940
PLACE OF DEATH Port Bou, Spain
Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1892 ( MDCCCXCII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Events 489 - Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona and is defeated again Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Portbou is a town in the Alt Empordà comarca, in Girona province, Catalonia, Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
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