Walter Benjamin, an Aesthetic of Redemption

393 Pages·2011·1.67 MB·English

by  Richard Wolin

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title : Walter Benjamin, an Aesthetic of Redemption Weimar and
Now ; 7
author : Wolin, Richard.
publisher : University of California Press
isbn10 | asin : 0520084004
print isbn13 : 9780520084001
ebook isbn13 : 9780585181349
language : English
subject Benjamin, Walter,--1892-1940--Criticism and interpretation.
publication date : 1994
lcc : PT2603.E455Z96 1994eb
ddc : 838/.91209
subject : Benjamin, Walter,--1892-1940--Criticism and interpretation.
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Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism
Martin Jay and Anton Kaes, General Editors
1. Heritage of Our Times, by Ernst Bloch
2. The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 18901990, by Steven E. Aschheim
3. The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, edited by Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, and Edward Dimendberg
4. Batteries of Life: On the History of Things and Their Perception in Modernity, by Christoph Asendorf
5. Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution, by Margaret Cohen
6. Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany, by Thomas J. Saunders
7. Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, by Richard Wolin
8. The New Typography, by Jan Tschichold, translated by Ruari McLean
7. Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, by Richard Wolin
8. The New Typography, by Jan Tschichold, translated by Ruari McLean

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Page i
Walter Benjamin

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Page ii
Benjamin in 1927, at the age of 35. (Photo: Suhrkamp Verlag)

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Page iii
Walter Benjamin
An Aesthetic of Redemption
Richard Wolin
with a new Introduction
by the Author
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London

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Page iv
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press
London, England
Copyright © 1994 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wolin, Richard.
Walter Benjamin, an aesthetic of redemption / Richard Wolin.
[2nd ed.]
p. cm.(Weimar and now; 7)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-08400-4 (alk. paper)
1. Benjamin, Walter, 18921940Criticism and interpretation.
I. Title. II. Series.
PT2603.E455Z96 1994
838´.91209dc20 93-30241
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information
SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984

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Page v
For my parents,
Harold and Merle Wolin,
with love and gratitude

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Page vii
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
A Note on the Translations xviii
A Note on Terminology xviii
Introduction to the Revised Edition xix
Chapter One 1
Origins
1
Childhood and Autobiography
4
Youth Movement
13
Romantic Anticapitalism
Chapter Two 29
The Path to Trauerspiel
31
Experience, Kabbalah, and Language
48
Messianic Time Versus Historical Time
63
Allegory
Chapter Three 79
Ideas and Theory of Knowledge
79
Anti-Historicism
84
The Essay as Mediation Between Art and Philosophical Truth
90
Constellation, Origin, Monad
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Page viii
Chapter Four 107
From Messianism to Materialism
108
Radical Communism
118
One-Way Street and Dialectical Images
126
Surrealism
Chapter Five 139
Benjamin and Brecht
139
"Crude Thinking"
148
Epic Theater
154
The Author as Producer
Chapter Six 163
The Adorno-Benjamin Dispute
165
The Philosophical Rapprochement Between Benjamin and Adorno in the Early 1930s
173
The Arcades Exposé
183
Art and Mechanical Reproduction
198
Methodological Asceticism, Magic and Positivism
207
Beyond the Dispute
Chapter Seven 213
Benjamin's Materialist Theory of Experience
218
The Disintegration of Community: Novel versus Story
226
Baudelaire, Modernity, and Shock Experience