Walter Benjamin

Seven decades after his death, German Jewish writer, philosopher, and literary critic Walter Benjamin (18921940) continues to fascinate and influence. Here Uwe Steiner offers a comprehensive and sophisticated introduction to the oeuvre of this intriguing theorist. Acknowledged only by a small circle of intellectuals during his lifetime, Benjamin is now a major figure whose work is essential to an understanding of modernity. Steiner traces the development of Benjamin's thought chronologically through his writings on philosophy, literature, history, politics, the media, art, photography, cinema, technology, and theology.Walter Benjaminreveals the essential coherence of its subject's thinking while also analyzing the controversial or puzzling facets of Benjamin's work. That coherence, Steiner contends, can best be appreciated by placing Benjamin in his proper context as a member of the German philosophical tradition and a participant in contemporary intellectual debates. As Benjamin's writing attracts more and more readers in the English-speaking world,Walter Benjaminwill be a valuable guide to this fascinating body of work.

Uwe Steiner is professor in and chair of the Department of German Studies at Rice University and the author or editor of numerous books in German
Michael Winkler is professor emeritus of German studies at Rice University

Preface	p. ix
Translator's Note	p. xi
Benjamin's Works Cited in This Study	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
A Contemporary of Modernity	p. 1
Life and Works	p. 8
Companions, Influences	p. 14
Early Writings, 1914-18	p. 21
Apotheosis of the Mind (Geist): Beginnings inside the Youth Movement	p. 21
"Dialogue on Contemporary Religiosity" (1912)
"The Life of Students" (1915-16)
Life of the Work of Art	p. 29
"Two Poems by Friedrich Hölderlin" (1914-15)
"The Idiot by Dostoevsky" (1917-21)
Defining His Philosophical Position	p. 34
"On the Program of the Coming Philosophy" (1917-18)
The Magic of Language	p. 41
Letter to Buber of July 17, 1916
"On Language as Such and on the Language of Man" (1916)
"The Task of the Translator" (1921)
Art Criticism and Politics, 1919-25	p. 50
Romantic Philosophy of Art and Its Contemporary Relevance	p. 50
The Concept of Criticism in German Romanticism (1919-20)
Exemplary Criticism: "Goethe's Elective Affinities"	p. 56
"Announcement of the Journal Angelus Novas" (1912)
"Goethe's Elective Affinities" (1921-25)
The Problematic of Art: Criticism and Allegorical Artwork	p. 63
Origin of German Tragic Drama (1923-28)
Paul Scheerbart and the Concept of the Political	p. 72
"Theological-political Fragment" (1920-21)
"The True Politician" (1921-25)
"Critique of Violence" (1921)
"Paul Scheerbart: Lesabéndio" (1917-19)
Journalistic Commitment and Essayistic Work, 1925-33	p. 80
Profane Illumination: Surrealism and Politics	p. 80
One-Way Street (1923-28)
"Moscow" (1927)
"Surrealism: The Last Snapshot of the German Intelligentsia" (1929)
The "Strategist in the Literary Struggle"	p. 88
Reviews of Literary Scholarship (1926-31): Gundolf, Walzel, Kommerell, Ermatinger
"Politicizing the Intelligentsia" (1930-32): Reviews of Haas, Kästner, Hiller, Kracauer, Jünger
The Task of the Critic	p. 95
"Collected Essays on Literature" (1929-30)
"Journal Project: Krisis und Kritik" (1930)
"Johann Peter Hebel" (1926)
"Gottfried Keller" (1927)
"Robert Walser" (1929)
"Julien Green" (1929)
"On the Image of Proust" (1929)
"Karl Kraus" (1931)
"Paul Valéry" (1931)
"Bert Brecht" (1930)
"What Is the Epic Theater?" (1931-39)
Exile Writings, 1933-39	p. 105
The Changing Function of Art	p. 105
"The Present Social Situation of the French Writer" (1933-34)
"The Author as Producer" (1934)
"Eduard Fuchs, Collector and Historian" (1937)
"'The Regression of Poetry' by C. G. Jochmann" (1939)
The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility	p. 115
"Little History of Photography" (1931)
"The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility" (1935-36)
Reinstatement of Epic Narration	p. 126
"Experience and Poverty" (1933)
"The Crisis of the Novel: Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1930)
"The Storyteller: Observations on the Works of Nikolai Leskov" (1936)
"Franz Kafka: Beim Ban der Chinesischen Mauer" (1931)
"Franz Kafka. On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death" (1934)
Primal History of Modernism, 1931-40	p. 138
Berlin Childhood around 1900	p. 138
"Berlin Chronicle" (1932)
"Berlin Childhood around 1900" (1932-38)
"Doctrine of the Similar/On the Mimetic Faculty" (1933)
Parisian Arcades	p. 145
The Arcades Project (1927-1940)
"Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1935)
"Paris, capitale du XIXème siècle" (1939)
Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism	p. 154
"The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire" (1938)
"On Some Motifs in Baudelaire" (1939)
"Central Park" (1939)
The Concept of History	p. 165
"On the Concept of History" (1940)
"Arcades Project: Files J and N"
Posthumous Influence and Stages of Reception	p. 174
Record of Extant Material and Editions	p. 174
Reception	p. 180
Chronology	p. 185
Notes	p. 187
Select Bibliography	p. 213
Index of Names	p. 227
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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