Synopses & Reviews
A companion volume to Illuminations, the first collection of Walter Benjamin's writings, Reflections presents a further sampling of his wide-ranging work. Here Benjamin evolves a theory of language as the medium of all creation, discusses theater and surrealism, reminisces about Berlin in the 1920s, recalls conversations with Bertolt Brecht, and provides travelogues of various cities, including Moscow under Stalin. He moves seamlessly from literary criticism to autobiography to philosophical-theological speculations, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest and most versatile writers of the twentieth century. Also included is a new preface by Leon Wieseltier that explores Benjamin's continued relevance for our times.
Synopsis
A companion volume to Illuminations (also available in Schocken paperback), Reflections presents a new sampling of Walter Benjamin's wide-ranging work. In addition to literary criticism, it contains autobiographical narration and travel pieces, aphorisms, and philosophical-theological speculations.
About the Author
Walter Benjamin is recognized as one of the most acute analysts of literary and sociological phenomenon of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He died in 1940.
Table of Contents
IntroductionONE
A Berlin Chronicle
One-Way Street (selection)
TWO
Moscow
Marseilles
Hashish in Marseilles
Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century
Naples
THREE
Surrealism
Brecht’s Threepenny Novel
Conversations with Brecht
The Author as Producer
Karl Kraus
FOUR
Critique of Violence
The Destructive Character
Fate and Character
Theologico-Political Fragment
On Language as Such and on the Language of Man
On the Mimetic Faculty
Editor’s Note
Useful Further Readings
Index