Walter Benjamin

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

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (15 July 1892 – 27 September 1940) was a German philosopher , sociologist , literary critic , translator and essayist . He was at times associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory . His turn to Marxism in the 1930s was influenced by his friend Bertolt Brecht , who had developed his own critical aesthetics , which asked for the emotional distancing of the spectator ( Verfremdungseffekt ). An important earlier influence and friend was Gershom Scholem , who founded the modern, academic study of the Kabbalah and of Jewish mysticism . Over the last half-century the regard for his work and its influence have risen dramatically, making Benjamin one of the most important twentieth century thinkers about literature and about modern aesthetic experience. As a sociological and cultural critic , Benjamin combined ideas drawn from historical materialism , German idealism , and Jewish mysticism in a body of work which was a novel contribution to Western Marxism and aesthetic theory. As a literary scholar, he wrote his most famous essays on Charles Baudelaire ; he translated the Tableaux Parisiens edition of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal as well as Proust 's In Search of Lost Time . His work is widely cited in academic and literary studies, in particular his essays The Task of the Translator and The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction .

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German philosopher and cultural critic. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism , Romanticism , historical materialism , and Jewish mysticism , Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory and Western Marxism . He is associated with the Frankfurt School . He was also related by marriage to German political theorist Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to his cousin, Günther Anders . Among Benjamin's major works as a literary critic are essays on Goethe , Kafka , Kraus , Leskov , Proust , Baudelaire , and translation theory . He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu . His turn to Marxism in the 1930s was partly due to the influence of Bertolt Brecht , who developed a theater notable for its Verfremdungseffekt (defamiliarization, alienation). An earlier influence was friend Gershom Scholem , founder of the academic study of the Kabbalah and of Jewish mysticism. Influenced by the Swiss anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815–87), Benjamin coined the term "auratic perception", denoting the aesthetic faculty by means of which civilization may recover an appreciation of myth. Scholars often cite Benjamin's most famous works, especially the essays "The Task of the Translator" (1923) and " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1936). Benjamin committed suicide in Portbou at the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape from the Nazis . Walter Benjamin: An Intellectual Biography (English translation) .

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( / ˈ b ɛ n j ə m ɪ n / ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist . An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism , Romanticism , Western Marxism , and Jewish mysticism , Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory , literary criticism , and historical materialism . He was associated with the Frankfurt School , and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem . He was also related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin, Günther Anders . Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays " The Task of the Translator " (1923), " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1936), and " Theses on the Philosophy of History " (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Baudelaire , Goethe , Kafka , Kraus , Leskov , Proust , Walser , and translation theory . He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu . In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin committed suicide at Portbou on the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape from the invading Wehrmacht . Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol. Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness, that is, its aura." [ Die Einzigkeit des Kunstwerks ist identisch mit seinem Eingebettetsein in den Zusammenhang der Tradition. Diese Tradition selber ist freilich etwas durchaus Lebendiges, etwas außerordentlich Wandelbares. B. stand in einem anderen Traditionszusammenhange bei den Griechen, die sie zum Gegenstand des Kultus machten, als bei den mittelalterlichen Klerikern, die einen unheilvollen Abgott in ihr erblickten. Was aber beiden in gleicher Weise entgegentrat, war ihre Einzigkeit, mit einem anderen Wort: ihre Aura .] Josephson-Storm, Jason (2017). Walter Benjamin: An Intellectual Biography (English translation) .

German cultural critic, philosopher and social critic (1892–1940) Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( / ˈ b ɛ n j ə m ɪ n / ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940 ) was a German Jewish philosopher , cultural critic , media theorist and essayist . An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism , Romanticism , Western Marxism , Jewish mysticism , and Neo-Kantianism , Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory , literary criticism , and historical materialism . He was associated with the Frankfurt School , and also maintained formative friendships with thinkers such as playwright Bertolt Brecht and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem . He was related to German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt through her first marriage to Benjamin's cousin Günther Anders though the friendship between Arendt and Benjamin outlasted her marriage to Anders. Both Arendt and Anders were students of Martin Heidegger , whom Benjamin considered a nemesis. Among Benjamin's best known works are the essays " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1935), and " Theses on the Philosophy of History " (1940). His major work as a literary critic included essays on Baudelaire , Goethe , Kafka , Kraus , Leskov , Proust , Walser , Trauerspiel and translation theory . He also made major translations into German of the Tableaux Parisiens section of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal and parts of Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu . Of the hidden principle organizing Walter Benjamin's thought Scholem wrote unequivocally that, "Benjamin was a philosopher," while his younger colleagues Arendt and Adorno contend just as emphatically that he was "not a philosopher." As Scholem remarked: "The peculiar aura of authority emanating from his work tended to incite contradiction." Benjamin himself considered his research to be theological , though he eschewed all recourse to traditionally metaphysical sources of transcendentally revealed authority. In 1940, at the age of 48, Benjamin died by suicide at Portbou on the French–Spanish border while attempting to escape the advance of the Third Reich . Though popular acclaim eluded him during his life, the decades following his death won his work posthumous renown. This tradition itself is thoroughly alive and extremely changeable. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, stood in a different traditional context with the Greeks, who made it an object of veneration, than with the clerics of the Middle Ages, who viewed it as an ominous idol. Both of them, however, were equally confronted with its uniqueness, that is, its aura." [ Die Einzigkeit des Kunstwerks ist identisch mit seinem Eingebettetsein in den Zusammenhang der Tradition. Diese Tradition selber ist freilich etwas durchaus Lebendiges, etwas außerordentlich Wandelbares. B. stand in einem anderen Traditionszusammenhange bei den Griechen, die sie zum Gegenstand des Kultus machten, als bei den mittelalterlichen Klerikern, die einen unheilvollen Abgott in ihr erblickten. Was aber beiden in gleicher Weise entgegentrat, war ihre Einzigkeit, mit einem anderen Wort: ihre Aura .] "Walter Benjamin" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Josephson-Storm, Jason (2017). Walter Benjamin: An Intellectual Biography (English translation) . The correspondence of Walter Benjamin: 1910 - 1940 . On Jews and Judaism in crisis: selected essays . In Arendt, Hannah (ed.). " "Letter to (publisher) Max Rychner, 7 March 1931" ". In Scholem, Gershom (ed.). The correspondence of Walter Benjamin: 1910 - 1940 . The correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem .