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Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 2, 1927-1934by Walter Benjamin
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In the frenzied final years of the Weimar Republic, amid economic collapse and mourning political catastrophe, Walter Benjamin emerged as the most original practicing literary critic and public intellectual in the German-speaking world. Volume 2 of Selected Writings, covering the years 1927 to 1934, displays the full spectrum of Benjamin's achievements at this pivotal stage in his career. Previously concerned chiefly with literary theory, Benjamin during these Years does pioneering work in new areas, from the stud of popular Culture (a discipline he virtually created) to theories of the media and the visual arts. His writings on the theory of modernity-most of them new to readers of English--develop ideas as important to an understanding of the twentieth century as an contained in his widely anthologiied essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility. This volume brings together previously untranslated writings on major figures such as Brecht, Valéry and Gide, and on subjects ranging from film, radio, and the novel to memory, kitsch, and the theory of language. We find the manifoldly inquisitive Benjamin musing on the new modes of perception opened tip by techniques of photographic enlargement and cinematic montage, on the life and work of &Goethe at Weimar, on the fascination of old toys and the mysteries of food, and on the allegorical significance of Mickey Mouse. Review:The period from 1927 to 1934 spanned in this volume was for Walter Benjamin both grievous and fertile...The range of topics and perspectives is immense. It extends from considerations on kitsch and pornography to repeated encounters, personal or indirect, with Gide, Kierkegaard and surrealism. The cultural history of toys fascinates Benjamin as he records his own Berlin childhood. Insights into 'Left-Wing Melancholy' alternate with thoughts on Mickey Mouse, on Chaplin, and on graphology, which Benjamin practised to eke out his earnings. Review:Benjamin's writings deserve a spot in every library. This volume especially speaks of extraordinary resilience, given the diminishing prospects of an author forced to sell parts of his library to survive. Review:No matter how seemingly idiosyncratic the topic, Benjamin drills deep until, almost invariably, he excavates prose that sparkles with a high specific density: hard aphoristically gem-like, and often brilliant...Benjamin's Selected Writings, Volume 2, should, I think, bowl over and beguile any who, caring about the life of the mind, have not yet succumbed to the bearish charms of this gloomy observer of his besotted times. Wherever he turned his incisive gaze the clarity of morning's first light shines forth. Review:Whatever your expectations, here is a book that will meet them, surpass them, frustrate them, and probably transform their very nature altogether…This is a book to be mined, which offers the English-reading scholar a rich resource of mineral wealth. It contains previously translated precious gems such as the "Surrealism" essay which illuminates Benjamin's own "poetic politics"…There are also wide, rich seams of sound and solid philosophical and critical coal that will keep the post-Kantian boilers stoked for the foreseeable future. Synopsis:In the frenzied final years of the Weimar Republic, amid economic collapse and mourning political catastrophe, Walter Benjamin emerged as the most original practicing literary critic and public intellectual in the German-speaking world. Volume 2 of Selected Writings, covering the years 1927 to 1934, displays the full spectrum of Benjamin's achievements at this pivotal stage in his career. Previously concerned chiefly with literary theory, Benjamin during these Years does pioneering work in new areas, from the stud of popular Culture (a discipline he virtually created) to theories of the media and the visual arts. His writings on the theory of modernity-most of them new to readers of English--develop ideas as important to an understanding of the twentieth century as an contained in his widely anthologiied essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility. This volume brings together previously untranslated writings on major figures such as Brecht, Valry and Gide, and on subjects ranging from film, radio, and the novel to memory, kitsch, and the theory of language. We find the manifoldly inquisitive Benjamin musing on the new modes of perception opened tip by techniques of photographic enlargement and cinematic montage, on the life and work of &Goethe at Weimar, on the fascination of old toys and the mysteries of food, and on the allegorical significance of Mickey Mouse. About the AuthorWalter Benjamin(1892-1940) was the author of many works of literary and cultural analysis.Michael W. Jenningsis Professor of German, <>Princeton University. Table of ContentsMoscow, 1927 Dream Kitsch The Political Groupings of Russian Writers On the Present Situation of Russian Film Reply to Oscar A. H. Schmitz Introductory Remarks on a Series for L'Humanité Moscow Review of Gladkov's Cement Journalism Gottfried Keller Diary of my Journey to the Loire Review of Soupault's le Coeur d'or The Idea of a Mystery Review of Hessel's Heimliches Berlin A State Monopoly on Pornography Image Imperatives, 1928 The Return of the Flâneur, 1929 Crisis and Critique, 1930 The Destructive Character, 1931 Ibizan Sequence, 1932 Thought Figures, 1933 The Author's Producer, 1934 A Note on the Texts What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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