On Walter (Benjamin)

Author: [French] Jacques Derrida, translated by Guo Jun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: Walter Benjamin was a German thinker who committed suicide in 1940 and was hailed as the last intellectual in Europe. He rarely combined talent and erudition, not by subject classification, but by refining academic interests based on curiosity and self-origin. Therefore, Benjamin's research can only find focus and unity in this unique gift. The authors of this book, such as Theodor W. Adorno, Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, and Paul de Man, are all important intellectuals from Europe and America, who have interpreted Benjamin from various perspectives. Among Benjamin's numerous themes—allegory, language, modernity, Jewish theology, etc.—these interpretations present complex and diverse faces. Who was Benjamin? After hearing the news of Benjamin's suicide, his close friend Brecht said: "This is a real loss that Hitler has caused to German literature!" Among 20th-century scholars, none were as widely read in the West and suited for a wide range of different intellectual and political tendencies as Benjamin (and Foucault). As a Jew, Benjamin could not escape the fate of World War II. As an outstanding thinker, he left behind a vast legacy for later generations in fields such as philosophy and literature. His turbulent and drifting life in the early 20th century serves as a warning to those at the end of the century: how to find a balance between ideals and reality. Benjamin's entire life was dedicated to persistently interpreting a tradition, and the interpretation of tradition can be said to run through all his works.