The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin

Description

This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to the work and thought of the highly influential twentieth-century critic and theorist Walter Benjamin. The volume provides examinations of the different aspects of Benjamin's work that have had a significant effect on contemporary critical and historical thought. Topics discussed by experts in the field include Benjamin's relation to the avant-garde movements of his time, the form of the work of art, his theories on language and mimesis, modernity, his relation to Brecht and the Frankfurt School, his significance and relevance to modern cultural studies, his formative interpretation of Romanticism, and his autobiographical writings. The volume is aimed at readers who may be coming to Benjamin for the first time or who have some knowledge of Benjamin but would like to know more about the issues and concepts central to his work. Additional material includes a guide to further reading and a chronology.

'The essays explore the strain between romanticism and modernism in Benjamin's thought and manage to respond masterfully to the challenge of reading his sober prose, which ranges from laconic aphorisms to vibrant and exertive discourse ... yet another engaging essay focusing on Benjamin's relation to romanticism ... This essay's merit lies in demonstrating Benjamin's unequivocal and enthusiastic espousal of avant-garde aesthetics starting from One-Way Street to Arcades Project ... Jennings' essay is impelling and thought-provoking ...' Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory