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Page 1: Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations - Buch · PDF fileBenjamin, Walter, 1892–1940—Philosophy. I. Title. ... Phillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship
Page 2: Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations - Buch · PDF fileBenjamin, Walter, 1892–1940—Philosophy. I. Title. ... Phillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship
Page 3: Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations - Buch · PDF fileBenjamin, Walter, 1892–1940—Philosophy. I. Title. ... Phillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and Citizenship

Walter Benjamin

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For Thomas and Roisín

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Walter Benjamin

Critical Constellations

Graeme Gilloch

Polity

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Copyright © Graeme Gilloch 2002

The right of Graeme Gilloch to be identified as author of this work has beenasserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2002 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell PublishersLtd

Editorial office:Polity Press65 Bridge StreetCambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Marketing and production:Blackwell Publishers Ltd108 Cowley RoadOxford OX4 1JF, UK

Published in the USA byBlackwell Publishers Inc.350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes ofcriticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in aretrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permissionof the publisher.

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the conditionthat it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, orotherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of bindingor cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar conditionincluding this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataGilloch, Graeme.

Walter Benjamin—critical constellations / Graeme Gilloch.p. cm. — (Key contemporary thinkers)

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 0-7456-1007-2 (HB)—ISBN 0-7456-1008-01. Benjamin, Walter, 1892–1940—Philosophy. I. Title. II. Key

contemporary thinkers (Cambridge, England)PT2603.E455 Z6743 2001838¢.91209—dc21

2001002110

Typeset in 10 1–2 on 12 pt Palatinoby Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, CornwallThis book is printed on acid-free paper.

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Key Contemporary Thinkers

Published

Jeremy Ahearne, Michel de Certeau: Interpretation and its OtherPeter Burke, The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School

1929–1989M. J. Cain, Fodor: Language, Mind and PhilosophyMichael Caesar, Umberto Eco: Philosophy, Semiotics and the Work

of FictionColin Davis, Levinas: An IntroductionSimon Evnine, Donald DavidsonEdward Fullbrook and Kate Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir:

A Critical IntroductionAndrew Gamble, Hayek: The Iron Cage of LibertyGraeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin: Critical ConstellationsKaren Green, Dummett: Philosophy of LanguageEspen Hammer, Stanley Cavell: Skepticism, Subjectivity, and the

OrdinaryPhillip Hansen, Hannah Arendt: Politics, History and CitizenshipSean Homer, Fredric Jameson: Marxism, Hermeneutics,

PostmodernismChristopher Hookway, Quine: Language, Experience and RealityChristina Howells, Derrida: Deconstruction from Phenomenology

to EthicsFred Inglis, Clifford Geertz: Culture, Custom and EthicsSimon Jarvis, Adorno: A Critical IntroductionDouglas Kellner, Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Post-Modernism

and BeyondValerie Kennedy, Edward Said: A Critical IntroductionChandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls: A Theory of Justice

and its CriticsJames McGilvray, Chomsky: Language, Mind, and PoliticsLois McNay, Foucault: A Critical IntroductionPhilip Manning, Erving Goffman and Modern SociologyMichael Moriarty, Roland BarthesHarold W. Noonan, Frege: A Critical IntroductionWilliam Outhwaite, Habermas: A Critical IntroductionJohn Preston, Feyerabend: Philosophy, Science and SocietySusan Sellers, Hélène Cixous: Authorship, Autobiography and LoveDavid Silverman, Harvey Sacks: Social Science and Conversation

Analysis

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Dennis Smith, Zygmunt Bauman: Prophet of PostmodernityNicholas H. Smith, Charles Taylor: Meaning, Morals and ModernityGeoffrey Stokes, Popper: Philosophy, Politics and Scientific MethodGeorgia Warnke, Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and ReasonJames Williams, Lyotard: Towards a Postmodern PhilosophyJonathan Wolff, Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal

State

Forthcoming

Maria Baghramian, Hilary PutnamSara Beardsworth, KristevaJames Carey, Innis and McLuhanRosemary Cowan, Cornell West: The Politics of RedemptionGeorge Crowder, Isaiah Berlin: Liberty, Pluralism and LiberalismThomas D’Andrea, Alasdair MacIntyreEric Dunning, Norbert EliasJocelyn Dunphy, Paul RicoeurMatthew Elton, Daniel DennettNigel Gibson, Frantz FanonKeith Hart, C.L.R. JamesSarah Kay, Zizek: A Critical IntroductionPaul Kelly, Ronald DworkinCarl Levy, Antonio GramsciMoya Lloyd, Judith ButlerDermot Moran, Edmund HusserlKari Palonen, Quentin SkinnerSteve Redhead, Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated CultureChris Rojek, Stuart Hall and Cultural StudiesWes Sharrock and Rupert Read, KuhnNicholas Walker, Heidegger

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Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Abbreviations x

Introduction: Benjamin as a Key Contemporary Thinker 1

1 Immanent Criticism and Exemplary Critique 27

2 Allegory and Melancholy 57

3 From Cityscape to Dreamworld 88

4 Paris and the Arcades 113

5 Culture and Critique in Crisis 140

6 Benjamin On-Air, Benjamin on Aura 163

7 Love at Last Sight 198

Conclusion: Towards a Contemporary Constellation 234

Notes 249

Bibliography 289

Index 298

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to many people for their help, guidance and supportduring the writing of this book. I would especially like to thank John Thompson, who suggested the project initially, and Tim Dant,David Frisby and Neil Leach for their support throughout. My work has benefited greatly from conversations with many people,to whom I would like to extend my thanks: Paul Aylward, JonFletcher, Hans-Joachim Hahn, Jaeho Kang, Esther Leslie, BrianLonghurst, Scott McCracken, Tim May, Ulrich Oevermann,Deborah Parsons, Thomas Reghely, Barry Sandiwell, Greg Smith,Gordon Tait, Paul Taylor, Charles Turner, and Cas Wouters. I wouldalso like to thank Troels Degn Johanssen, Claus Krogholm Kris-tiansen, Erik Steinskøg and the Aesthetic Theory seminar of theNordic Summer University for their ideas and encouragement.

The section on photography in chapter 6 draws upon a paperjointly written with Tim Dant and presented at the InternationalWalter Benjamin Association conference in Amsterdam in July 1997.I am grateful to Tim for permission to develop these ideas here.

Parts of the present Introduction and Conclusion appear in anearlier version in Profiles in Contemporary Social Theory, edited byBryan Turner and Anthony Elliott (Sage Publications, London,2001).

I am very grateful to the Leverhulme Trust, whose generousfunding supported the initial work on this book.

I would also like to thank the sociology secretarial staff at theUniversity of Salford (Linda Jones and Beryl Pluples) and the staffat Polity for their practical help and support. Special thanks are due

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Acknowledgements ix

to Jean van Altena for her superb editorial work and to Gill Motleyfor her patience and help throughout.

Most of all, I wish to thank Bernadette Boyle for all her patience,understanding and encouragement, and Thomas and Roisín, whoprovided the most delightful distractions possible and to whom thisbook is dedicated.

The author and publishers would like to thank the following forpermission to use copyrighted material:

Harvard University Press and Suhrkamp Verlag for permission toquote from Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume I 1913–1926,edited by Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings, copyright 1996by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; and Volume II1927–1934, translated by Rodney Livingstone, edited by Michael W.Jennings, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith, copyright 1999 by thePresident and Fellows of Harvard College; and The Arcades Projecttranslated by Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, copyright1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, CambridgeMass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Harvard University Press and Suhrkamp Verlag for permissionto quote from Gesammelte Schriften, edited by Rolf Tiedemann andHermann Schweppenhäuser, Frankfurt am Main, 1974/1991.

HarperCollins Publishers for permission to quote from Illumina-tions by Walter Benjamin.

The University of Chicago Press for permission to quote from TheCorrespondence of Walter Benjamin, edited Gershom Scholem andTheodor W. Adorno, translated by Manfred Jacobson and EvelynJacobson, Chicago and London, 1994.

Verso for permission to quote from One Way Streets and OtherWritings translated by Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter,London 1985; The Origin of German Drama translated by JohnOsbourne, London 1985; Understanding Brecht translated by AnnaBostock, London 1983; and Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Eraof High Capitalism, translated by Harry Zohn, London 1983.

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders, but if anyhave been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleasedto make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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Abbreviations

Where possible, existing English translations have been used. Otherwise, translations are my own. References to the ‘ArcadesProject’ are given by Convolute number and page.

GS Gesammelte Schriften, vols I–VII, eds. Rolf Tiedemannand Hermann Schweppenhäuser, with the collabora-tion of Theodor Adorno and Gershom Scholem. Frank-furt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1974. TaschenbuchAusgabe, 1991.

SW1/SW2 Selected Writings, vols 1 and 2, ed. Marcus Bullock,Michael Jennings et al. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996, 1999.

ABC Theodor W. Adorno – Walter Benjamin: The Complete Correspondence 1928–1940. Cambridge: Polity, 1999.

AP Aesthetics and Politics: Debates between Bloch, Lukács,Brecht, Benjamin, Adorno, trans. and ed. Ronald Taylor,‘Afterword’ by Fredric Jameson. London: Verso, 1980.

ARC The Arcades Project, trans. Howard Eiland and KevinMcLaughlin. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press ofHarvard University Press, 1999.

CB Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capi-talism, trans. Harry Zohn. London: Verso, 1983.

COR The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, ed. and an-notated by Gershom Scholem and Theodor Adorno,trans. Manfred Jacobson and Evelyn Jacobson, ‘Fore-

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Abbreviations xi

word’ by Gershom Scholem. Chicago and London:University of Chicago Press, 1994.

CP ‘Central Park’, trans. Lloyd Spencer, New German Cri-tique, 34 (Winter 1985), pp. 28–58.

GER The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and GershomScholem 1932–1940, ed. Gershom Scholem, trans. GarySmith and Andre Lefevre, ‘Introduction’ by AnsonRabinbach. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UniversityPress, 1992.

ILL Illuminations, ed. and with an ‘Introduction’ by HannahArendt, trans. Harry Zohn. London: Fontana, 1973.

MD Moscow Diary, ed. Gary Smith, trans. Richard Sieburth,Preface by Gershom Scholem. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1986.

OGTD The Origin of German Tragic Drama, trans. JohnOsbourne, ‘Introduction’ by George Steiner. London:Verso, 1985.

OWS One-Way Street and Other Writings, trans. EdmundJephcott and Kingsley Shorter, ‘Introduction’ by SusanSontag. London: Verso, 1985.

UB Understanding Brecht, trans. Anna Bostock, ‘Introduc-tion’ by Stanley Mitchell. London: Verso, 1983.

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Introduction: Benjamin as a KeyContemporary Thinker

Origins

Writing from Paris to his closest friend, the Judaic scholar GershomScholem, on 20 January 1930, the German-Jewish philosopher, lit-erary and cultural theorist Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) makes hisintellectual ambition plain:

The goal I had set for myself has not yet been totally realized, but Iam finally getting close. The goal is that I be considered the foremostcritic of German literature. The problem is that literary criticism is no longer considered a serious genre in Germany and has not beenfor more than fifty years. If you want to carve out a reputation in the area of criticism, this ultimately means that you must recreatecriticism as a genre. (COR, p. 359)

This is a particularly ironic and peculiarly appropriate statement. Itis ironic because of Benjamin’s own precarious, marginal situationat the time of writing: the enforced withdrawal of his Habilitations-schrift1 a few years earlier had ended any hope of an academiccareer, and he was now limited to eking out an indigent living as afreelance writer, reviewer and translator, and even as the author and narrator of radio broadcasts for children. Indeed, Benjamin was to return to Paris only a couple of years later in the even moreimpoverished guise of a refugee fleeing Nazi tyranny. If Benjaminwas to become the ‘foremost critic of German literature’, it was tobe an expertise in exile.