Walter Benjamin

Walter Benjamin (July 15, 1892-September 27, 1940) was a German Jewish Marxist literary critic and philosopher.

Life and work

Benjamin was known during his life primarily for his philosophical essays and as a critic. As a sociological and cultural critic he combined ideas of Jewish mysticism with historical materialism in a body of work which was an entirely novel contribution to Marxist philosophy and aesthetic theory. As a literary scholar, he translated texts written by Marcel Proust and Charles Baudelaire, and Benjamin's essay "The Task of the Translator" is one of the best-known theoretical texts about translation.

Related Topics:
Sociological - Cultural critic - Jewish - Mysticism - Historical materialism - Marxist philosophy - Marcel Proust - Charles Baudelaire - Translation

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His most important writings were:

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• "Goethes Wahlverwandtschaften" (Goethe's Elective Affinities / 1922),
• Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels (Origin Of German Tragic Drama / 1928),
• Einbahnstraße (One Way Street / 1928),
• Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction / 1936),
• Berliner Kindheit um 1900 (Berlin Childhood around 1900 / 1950, published posthumously),
• Über den Begriff der Geschichte (On the Concept of History (Theses on the Philosophy of History) / 1939, published posthumously).

The Passagenwerk or "Arcades Project," Benjamin's lifelong 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 project, which many scholars believe might have become one of the great texts of 20th-century cultural criticism, was never completed; it has been posthumously edited and published in many languages in its unfinished form.

Related Topics:
Paris - 19th century - ''flânerie''

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Benjamin corresponded extensively with Theodor Adorno and Bertolt Brecht and occasionally received funding from the Frankfurt School under Adorno's and Horkheimer's direction. 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. The essay "On the Concept of History" (often referred to as the "Theses on the Philosophy of History"), among Benjamin's last works, is the closest approach to such a synthesis, and along with the essay "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility" (more commonly printed in English under the title "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"), is the most often read of his texts.

Related Topics:
Theodor Adorno - Bertolt Brecht - Frankfurt School - Marxism - Critical theory - Gerschom Scholem - On the Concept of History

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In the ninth thesis of the essay "Theses on the Philosophy of History" Benjamin interpreted a painting by the Swiss modernist painter Paul Klee. Benjamin focussed on epistemology, theory of language, allegory, and the philosophy of history. Furthermore, he wrote essays on Baudelaire, Kafka, Proust, and Brecht.

Related Topics:
Paul Klee - Epistemology - Allegory - Baudelaire - Kafka - Proust - Brecht

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Benjamin committed suicide in Port Bou at the Spanish-French border, while attempting to escape from the Nazis, when it appeared that his party would be denied passage across the border to freedom. The rest of the group was allowed to cross the border the next day, possibly because their desperation was made clear by Benjamin's suicide. A completed manuscript which Benjamin had carried in his suitcase, possibly his "Arcades Project," disappeared after his death and has not been recovered.

Related Topics:
Port Bou - Spanish - French - Nazi

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He was brother-in-law to Hilde Benjamin.

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