Walter Benjamin: Critique, Aesthetics, Politics

Critical Readings

Week 2: The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism

Ferris, David. "'Truth is the Death of Intention': Benjamin's Esoteric Concept of Romanticism." Studies in Romanticism 31, (Winter, 1992).

Gasche, Rodolphe. "The Sober Absolute: On Benjamin and the Early Romantics."Walter Benjamin: Theoretical Questions. Ed. David Ferris. Stanford UP, 1996.

Weber, Samuel. "Criticism Underway: Walter Benjamin's Romantic Concept of Criticism." From Romantic Revolutions: Criticism and Theory. Ed. Kenneth Johnston, et al. Indiana UP, 1990.

Weeks 3 and 4: "Critique of Violence"

Hamacher, Werner. "Afformative, Strike." Cardozo Law Review, 13 (1991): 1133-1157.

McCall, Tom. "Momentary Violence." From Walter Benjamin: Theoretical Questions. Ed. David Ferris. Stanford UP, 1996. 185-206.

Week 5: "Goethe's Elective Affinities"

Ferris, David. "Benjamin's Affinity: Goethe, Romanticism, and the Pure Problem of Criticism." From Walter Benjamin and Romanticism. Ed. Beatrice Hanssen and Andrew Benjamin. New York: Continuum, 2007. 180-196.

Weigel, Sigrid. "The Art Work as Breach of a Beyond: On the Dialectic of a Divine and Human Order in Walter Benjamin's 'Goethe's Elective Affinities.'" From Walter Benjamin and Romanticism. Ed. Beatrice Hanssen and Andrew Benjamin. New York: Continuum, 2007. 196-206.

Week 6: "The Task of the Translator"

de Man, Paul. "Conclusions: Walter Benjamin's 'The Task of the Translator." From The Resistance to Theory. Ed. Wlad Godzich. Minneapolis: U of Minnnesota P., 1986. 73-105.

Jacobs, Carol. "The Monstrosity of Translation: 'The Task of the Translator.'" From In the Language of Walter Benjamin.

Weeks 7 and 8: The Origin of the German Tragic Drama

 

Week 9: Benjamin, "The Author as Producer"

 

Week 10: Benjamin, "What is Epic Theatre?"; Benjamin, "The Storyteller"