Walter BenjaminDrawing upon a wealth of journal writings and personal correspondence, Esther Leslie presents a uniquely intimate portrait of one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century, Walter Benjamin. She sets his life in the context of his middle-class upbringing; explores the social, political, and economic upheaval in Germany during and after World War I; and recounts Benjamin’s eccentric love of toys, trick-books, travel, and ships. From the Frankfurt School and his influential friendships with Theodore Adorno, Gershom Scholem, and Bertolt Brecht, to his travels across Europe, Walter Benjamin traces out the roots of Benjamin’s groundbreaking writings and their far-reaching impact in his own time. Leslie argues that Benjamin’s life challenges the stereotypical narrative of the tragic and lonely intellectual figure—instead positioning him as a man who relished the fierce combat of competing theories and ideas. Closing with his death at the Spanish-French border in a desperate flight from the Nazis and Stalin, Walter Benjamin is a concise and concentrated account of a capacious intellect trapped by hostile circumstances. |
Contents
Abbreviations | 7 |
Benjamins Remnants | 9 |
Youth Culture 18921916 | 14 |
Making a Mark 191724 | 37 |
Books after Books 19259 | 64 |
Man of Letters 193032 | 101 |
Noms de Plume 19337 | 138 |
Writers Block 193840 | 183 |
Afterwords | 216 |
References | 234 |
| 252 | |
Photo Acknowledgements | 256 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adorno Adrienne Monnier aesthetics appeared April Arcades Project aura Baroque Baudelaire Benjamin left Benjamin told Benjamin wrote Berlin Berlin Childhood Berlin Chronicle Bloch bourgeois Brecht Childhood around 1900 collection Communist concept critical cultural dialectical diary Dora epic theatre Ernst essay experience fascism film flâneur France Frankfurter Zeitung French friends Fuchs Germaine Krull German graphology Gretel Karplus Habilitation hashish Hessel hoped Horkheimer Ibiza Institute intellectual Jewish Jews journal June Kafka Kracauer Lacis language letter literary lived Lukács Marxist masses material memory modern montage Moscow noted novel once One-way Street Paris past philosophical photographs play political Port Bou postcard present progress published radio Radt reading reproduced revolutionary San Remo Schoen Siegfried Kracauer social Stefan Stefan George story storyteller Surrealists technological theatre theory things thought tion told Scholem translation Walter Benjamin Walter Benjamins Archive words writing Wyneken youth