Synopses & Reviews
In the frenzied final years of the Weimar Republic, amid economic collapse and mounting political catastrophe, Walter Benjamin emerged as the most original practicing literary critic and public intellectual in the German-speaking world. Volume 2 of the
Selected Writings is now available in paperback in two parts.
In Part 1, Benjamin is represented by two of his greatest literary essays, "Surrealism" and "On the Image of Proust," as well as by a long article on Goethe and a generous selection of his wide-ranging commentary for Weimar Germany's newspapers.
Part 2 contains, in addition to the important longer essays, "Franz Kafka," "Karl Kraus," and "The Author as Producer," the extended autobiographical meditation "A Berlin Chronicle," and extended discussions of the history of photography and the social situation of the French writer, previously untranslated shorter pieces on such subjects as language and memory, theological criticism and literary history, astrology and the newspaper, and on such influential figures as Paul Valery, Stefan George, Hitler, and Mickey Mouse.
Review
[
Praise for the one-volume hardcover edition]
For those who know only the small selection of essays and longer texts previously translated into English, this book may be a revelation. Selected Writings: Volume 2 spanning the period from his abandonment of academia and his emergence as an important literary journalist in 1927 to his near silencing after the Nazis seized power and his exile in 1934, shows the writer at his sparkling best. Paul Mattick
Review
[
Praise for the one-volume hardcover edition]
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. New York Times Book Review
Review
[Praise for the one-volume hardcoveredition]
For those who know only the small selection ofessays and longer texts previously translated into English, this book may be a revelation.Selected Writings: Volume 2spanning the period from hisabandonment of academia and his emergence as an important literary journalist in 1927 to hisnear silencing after the Nazis seized power and his exile in 1934, shows the writer at hissparkling best.
Review
[Praise for the one-volume hardcover edition]
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.
Review
[Praise for the one-volume hardcoveredition]
The period from 1927 to 1934 spanned in this volumewas for Walter Benjamin both grievous and fertile...The range of topics and perspectives isimmense. It extends from considerations on kitsch and pornography to repeated encounters,personal or indirect, with Gide, Kierkegaard and surrealism. The cultural history of toysfascinates Benjamin as he records his own Berlin childhood. Insights into 'Left-Wing Melancholy'alternate with thoughts on Mickey Mouse, on Chaplin, and on graphology.
Synopsis
In the frenzied final years of the Weimar Republic, amid economic collapse and mounting political catastrophe, Walter Benjamin emerged as the most original practicing literary critic and public intellectual in the German-speaking world. Volume 2 of the Selected Writingsis now available in paperback in two parts.
In Part 1, Benjamin is represented by two of his greatest literary essays, "Surrealism" and "On the Image of Proust," as well as by a long article on Goethe and a generous selection of his wide-ranging commentary for Weimar Germany's newspapers.
Part 2 contains, in addition to the important longer essays, "Franz Kafka," "Karl Kraus," and "The Author as Producer," the extended autobiographical meditation "A Berlin Chronicle," and extended discussions of the history of photography and the social situation of the French writer, previously untranslated shorter pieces on such subjects as language and memory, theological criticism and literary history, astrology and the newspaper, and on such influential figures as Paul Valery, Stefan George, Hitler, and Mickey Mouse.
About the Author
Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was the author of many works of literary and cultural analysis.Michael W. Jennings is Class of 1900 Professor of Modern Languages at Princeton University.Howard Eiland teaches literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Gary Smith is an editor at work on the Einstein Papers project.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Table of Contents
Moscow, 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
Curriculum Vitae (III)
André Gide and Germany
Main Features of My Second Impression of Hashish
Conversation with André Gide
Old Toys
Hugo von Hofmannsthal's der Turm
Moonlit Nights on the rue la Boétie
Karl Kraus Reads Offenbach
The Cultural History of Toys
Toys and Play
Everything is Thought
Books by the Mentally Ill
Review of the Mendelssohns' der Mensch in der Handschrift
Food Fair
Paris as Goddess
The Path to Success, in Thirteen Theses
Weimar
The Fireside Saga
News about Flowers
Review of Green's Adrienne Mesurat
Goethe
Karl Kraus (Fragment)
The Return of the Flâneur, 1929
Chaplin
Program for a Proletarian Children's Theater
Surrealism
Chaplin in Retrospect
Chambermaids' Romances of the Past Century
Marseilles
On the Image of Proust
The Great Art of Making Things Seem Closer Together
Milieu Theoreticians
Children's Literature
Robert Walser
The Return of the Flâneur
Short Shadows (I)
A Communist Pedagogy
Notes on a Conversation with Béla Balász
Some Remarks on Folk Art
Tip for Patrons
Crisis and Critique, 1930
Notes (II)
Notes (III)
Program for Literary Criticism
Notes on a Theory of Gambling
The Crisis of the Novel
An Outsider Makes His Mark
Theories of German Fascism
Demonic Berlin
Hashish, Beginning of March 1930
Julien Green
Paris Diary
Review of Kracauer's die Angestellten
Food
Bert Brecht
The First Form of Criticism that Refuses to Judge
From the Brecht Commentary
Against a Masterpiece
Myslovice--Braunschweig--Marseilles
A Critique of the Publishing Industry
Graphology Old and New
Characterization of the New Generation
The Need to Take the Mediating Character of Bourgeois Writing Seriously
False Criticism
Antitheses
A Note on the Texts
Chronology, 1927-1934
Index