Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 2: 1927-1934

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by Walter Benjamin,

Edited by Michael W. Jennings

Harvard University Press

Due/Published May 1999, 704 pages, cloth

ISBN 0674945867

In the frenzied final years of the Weimar Republic, amid economic collapse and mounting political catastrophe, Walter Benjamin emerged as the most original practicing literary critic and public intellectual in the German-speaking world. Volume 2 of Selected Writings, covering the years 1927 to 1934, displays the full spectrum of Benjamin's achievements at this pivotal stage in his career.

Previously concerned chiefly with literary theory, Benjamin during these years does pioneering work in new areas, from the study of popular culture (a discipline he virtually created) to theories of the media and the visual arts. His writings on the theory of modernity--most of them new to readers of English--develop ideas as important to an understanding of the twentieth century as any contained in his widely anthologized essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility."

This volume brings together previously untranslated writings on major figures such as Brecht, Valery, and Gide, and on subjects ranging from film, radio, and the novel to memory, kitsch, and the theory of language. We find the manifoldly inquisitive Benjamin musing on the new modes of perception opened up by techniques of photographic enlargement and cinematic montage, on the life and work of Goethe at Weimar, on the fascination of old toys and the mysteries of food, and on the allegorical significance of Mickey Mouse. Also included are several of Benjamin's most entertaining radio scripts for a popular audience, as well as some rare and revealing glimpses into a fragmentary autobiography, in the form of diary entries, travel sketches, recollections, and personal meditations.

Review

From Mickey Mouse and Kierkegaard to Charlie Chaplin and Marcel Proust, Walter Benjamin’s interests ran the gamut. This remarkable new collection includes Benjamin’s writings in a wide variety of mediums and genres (autobiographical writings, book reviews, letters, essays and diary fragments) allowing us several prisms through which to appreciate Benjamin’s impressive intellectual achievement and curiosity. The selections include his writings on modernity, popular culture, toys, food, cultural theory, penny novels, photography, the novel, and such writers as Brecht, Kafka and Andre Gide. The wandering Benjamin (he lived in Moscow, France, Germany, and Spain during this time) is a valuable commentator on the dramatic political events of the day -- nascent communism in Russia and the rise of Hitler in Germany. He also relates his impressions of the different places he visited or lived in, the friendships he developed with such figures as Brecht and Scholem, and even his experience with hashish. Like the first volume, this newest collection is indispensable for a deeper understanding of Benjamin’s life, work, and understanding of modernity.