Authors: Richard J. Lane
ISBN-13: 9780719064371, ISBN-10: 0719064376
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Date Published: July 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Richard J. Lane is Professor of English at Malaspina University-College, Canada.
This book explores the persistence of absolute in Benjamin's work by sketching out the relationship between philosphy and theology apparent in his diverse writings, from the early youth movement essays to the later books, essays and fragments. Lane examines Benjamin from two main perspectives: a history-of-ideas approach situating Benjamin in relation to the new German-Jewish thinking at the turn of the twentieth-century, as well as the German youth movements, Surrealism and the "Georgekreis"; and a conceptual approach examining more critical issues in relation to Benjamin and Kant, modern aesthetics and narrative order.
1 | Introduction | 1 |
2 | Kulturpessimismus and the new thinking | 9 |
3 | Metaphysics of youth : Wyneken and 'Rausch' | 25 |
4 | History : surreal messianism | 51 |
5 | Goethe and the Georgekreis | 75 |
6 | Kant's experience | 101 |
7 | Casting the work of art | 124 |
8 | Disrupting textual order | 152 |
9 | Conclusion : exile and the time of crisis | 179 |