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Walter Benjamin
Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend
Series: - Social and Critical Theory, Volume: 14
Author:
In Walter Benjamin. Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend Stéphane Symons offers an innovative reading of the work of German philosopher, essayist and literary critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). Oftentimes interpreted as being either of a theological (Jewish-Messianic) or a materialist (neo-Marxist) nature, Benjaminâs writings are here characterized as "neither a-theological, nor immediately theological."
Starting from Benjaminâs philosophy of history, his interpretation of the work of Franz Kafka, his study on the German Baroque and his critique of modernity, Walter Benjamin. Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend zooms in on the issue of how a belief in the possibility of redemption and an attentiveness [Aufmerksamkeit] to expressions of an absolute force can endure within a universe that is nevertheless confronted as unfulfilled.
Starting from Benjaminâs philosophy of history, his interpretation of the work of Franz Kafka, his study on the German Baroque and his critique of modernity, Walter Benjamin. Presence of Mind, Failure to Comprehend zooms in on the issue of how a belief in the possibility of redemption and an attentiveness [Aufmerksamkeit] to expressions of an absolute force can endure within a universe that is nevertheless confronted as unfulfilled.
Stéphane Symons is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven (Belgium). His main research interests are Twentieth Century German and French philosophy, aesthetics and literature.
All interested in the writings of Walter Benjamin and in themes derived from Jewish-Messianism and Marxism.