Romancing Fascism: Modernity and Allegory in Benjamin, de Man, Shelley

234 Pages·2013·1.45 MB·English

by  Kathleen Kerr-Koch

Romancing Fascism

Romancing Fascism:
Modernity and Allegory in
Benjamin, de Man, Shelley
Kathleen Kerr-Koch
Bloomsbury Academic
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www.bloomsbury.com
First published 2013
© Kathleen Kerr-Koch, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
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Academic or the author.
ISBN: 978-1-4411-1180-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kerr-Koch, Kathleen.
Romancing fascism : modernity and allegory in Benjamin, De Man, Shelley / by Kathleen
Kerr-Koch.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-0493-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Allegory. 2. Modernism (Aesthetics)
3. Romanticism. 4. Criticism. 5. Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940--Criticism and
interpretation. 6. De Man, Paul--Criticism and interpretation. 7. Shelley, Percy Bysshe,
1792-1822--Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PN56.A5K47 2013
809’.915--dc23
2012046560
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk, NR21 8NN
Allegory
It is a lovely woman, richly dressed,
who shares her wineglass with her own long hair;
the brothel’s rotgut and the brawls of love
have left the marble of her skin unmarred.
She flouts Debauchery and flirts with Death,
monsters who maim what they do not mow down,
and yet their talons have not dared molest
the simple majesty of this proud flesh
Artemis walking, a sultana prone,
she worships pleasure with a Moslem’s faith
and summons to her breasts with open arms
the race of men enslaved by her warm eyes.
Sterile this virgin, yet imperative
to the world and its workings what she knows:
the body’s beauty is a noble gift
which wrests a pardon for all infamy.
What is Purgatory, what is Hell
to her? When she must go into the Night,
her eyes will gaze upon the face of Death
without hate, without remorse – as one newborn.
Charles Beaudelaire: Les Fleurs du mal
Allegory is the armature of modernity.
Walter Benjamin: Central Park

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Preface xi
Introduction: Modernity and the Allegoric 1
1 Critical Limits and Allegorical Contagion 7
2 From Vitalism to the Traumatised Angel of History: Walter Benjamin’s
Allegory 19
3 From Inwardness to Allegories of Reference: Paul de Man 81
4 How to do Things with Allegory: Percy Bysshe Shelley 125
5 Conclusions: Criticism as Enlightened Deconstruction 149
Notes 167
Bibliography 199
Index 209

Acknowledgements
There are so, so many people to thank for helping to bring this project to completion.
First thanks is to Professor Christopher Norris for his immense erudition, unwavering
support, guidance, commitment and care in matters academic as well as political. Over
the years he has taught me the importance of maintaining the integral connection
between intellectual life and political praxis, the life of the mind and a world so badly
in need of repair. For all of these things, and for his friendship, I am deeply grateful.
Secondly, I must thank my family – my parents Doug and Ruth Kerr, my siblings Larry,
Diane and Trevor, not to mention my larger extended family – who have supported
me in spirit as well as at times financially. Last, but by no means least, thanks to my
loving husband Gerhard, who has soldiered me through the years of research, not only
cooking meals, buying books, quelling fears, and playing music, but helping me talk
through my ideas and translate some difficult German texts.