The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940 - Softcover

Benjamin, Walter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226042383 ISBN 13: 9780226042381

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2012

Synopsis

Called “the most important critic of his time” by Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin has only become more influential over the years, as his work has assumed a crucial place in current debates over the interactions of art, culture, and meaning. A “natural and extraordinary talent for letter writing was one of the most captivating facets of his nature,” writes Gershom Scholem in his Foreword to this volume; and Benjamin's correspondence reveals the evolution of some of his most powerful ideas, while also offering an intimate picture of Benjamin himself and the times in which he lived.Writing at length to Scholem and Theodor Adorno, and exchanging letters with Rainer Maria Rilke, Hannah Arendt, Max Brod, and Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin elaborates on his ideas about metaphor and language. He reflects on literary figures from Kafka to Karl Kraus, and expounds his personal attitudes toward such subjects as Marxism and French national character. Providing an indispensable tool for any scholar wrestling with Benjamin’s work, The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910–1940 is a revelatory look at the man behind much of the twentieth century’s most significant criticism.

About this title

About the Author:

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) was a German philosopher, writer, and literary critic.

Review:

"There has been no more original, no more serious, critic and reader in our time." (George Steiner)"

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0226042383
• ISBN 13: 9780226042381
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 651
• Editor: Scholem Gershom, Adorno Theodor W.