Walter Benjamin

by Roberts, Julian

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Title Statements

Full title :Walter Benjamin / by Julian Roberts.

Summary

Arguing that the importance of painting and other visual art for Benjamin's epistemology has yet to be appreciated, Weigel undertakes the first systematic analysis of their significance to his thought. She does so by exploring Benjamin's dialectics of secularization, an approach that allows Benjamin to explore the simultaneous distance from and orientation towards revelation and to deal with the difference and tensions between religious and profane ideas. In the process, Weigel identifies the double reference of 'life' to both nature and to a 'supernatural' sphere as a guiding concept of Benjamin's writings. Sensitive to the notorious difficulty of translating his language, she underscores just how much is lost in translation, particularly with regard to religious connotations. The book thus positions Benjamin with respect to the other European thinkers at the heart of current discussions of sovereignty and martyrdom, of holy and creaturely life. It corrects misreadings, including Agamben's staging of an affinity between Benjamin and Schmitt, and argues for the closeness of Benjamin's work to that of Aby Warburg, with whom Benjamin unsuccessfully attempted an intellectual exchange.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:1982.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):MacMillan Press
Place of Publication:London
Language:eng
Publication Date:1982.

The Physical Object

Description:viii, 250 pages ; : 23 cm.

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:0333306171, 9780333306178, 0333306198, 9780333306192
oclc:ocm09360197
LC Classification:PT2603.E455
Dewey Decimal:838/.91209

I. Benjamin's life -- II. Context and background. 1. The Early years -- 2. Socialism and the writer -- 3. The Intellectual background -- III. Benjamin's work. 1. From ethics to politics -- 2. Historical materialism -- 3. The Revolution-Utopia or plan?