It is with great pleasure that we present the inaugural volume of New Benjamin Studies. This new series aims to provide a platform for both emerging and established scholars to investigate the work of the German writer Walter Benjamin. New Benjamin Studies seeks to offer an insight into the rich variety of contemporary readings of Benjaminâs oeuvre from different angles in the humanities and beyond. Rather than merely reiterating established dogmas of Benjamin scholarship, it serves as an invitation to critically engage with and trace the movements of Benjaminâs thought. The publication of this yearbook undoubtedly carries a âhistorical claimâ, as Benjamin writes in the announcement of the journal Angelus Novus (SW 1, 292).1 Accordingly, New Benjamin Studies is dedicated to exploring the âactualityâ of Benjaminâs thought-figures as well as their implications for our present world.
The first thematic issue is an examination of the concept and practices of âcommunityâ (Gemeinschaft). Figures of community run like a thread through many of Benjaminâs writings: From his earliest reflections on the German Student Movement, including his 1911 essay on âThe Free School Communityâ, to his ill-fated Habilitation on the Origin of the German Trauerspiel (1925); and from his early manuscript âOn Language as Such and on the Language of Manâ (1916) to his later, more pointedly materialist city portrait, âMoscowâ (1927). For Benjamin, the term entails not only a critique of ânational communityâ (Volksgemeinschaft), but equally an effort to delineate a form of âethical communityâ (sittliche Gemeinschaft) and a âcommunity of languageâ (Sprachgemeinschaft). In each case, these figures of community are articulated in response to shifting historical circumstances, including two World Wars, and through an engagement with a wide range of interlocutorsâHölderlin, Nietzsche, and Wyneken, among them. Although Benjamin never systematically expounds the concept of community per se, his frequent use of the term is consistent with his wider effort to recast the sense in which alternative forms of sociality might be conceivedâbe it in terms of âThe Storytellerâsâ âcommunity of listenersâ (Gemeinschaft der Lauschenden) or in terms of the city as âthe first communioâ (die erste communio), as noted in The Arcades Project. In other words, there is a sense in which Benjaminâs concept of community feeds into the development of later and related terms, such as âthe collectiveâ (das Kollektiv), thus marking a nodal point: An opportunity to rethink the interplay of language, history, and politics in the register of what is common.
All scholars involved in the first issue of New Benjamin Studies have taken up the challenge of addressing the multifaceted concept of community in Benjamin from different perspectives. The editors would like to express their sincere thanks for their excellent contributionsâthey have made this volume a truly communal endeavour. A special thank you to Sigrid Weigel and Daniel Weidner for passing the torch of the Benjamin Studien to us with confidence and enthusiasm, and to Irving Wohlfarth for his loyal patronage over all the years that we have been fortunate to exchange ideas with him. Many thanks also to our advisory board for their great support, to Alison Hugill for her skilful copy-editing, to our peer reviewers for their generous input, and to our editor Henning Siekmann at Brill for helping us to finally turn the idea for this yearbook into a reality.
Translation modified.