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Book Description
A now legendary collection of seminal essays by one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Walter Benjamin was one of the most original cultural critics of the twentieth century. Illuminations includes his views on Kafka, with whom he felt a close personal affinity; his studies on Baudelaire and Proust; and his essays on Leskov and on Brecht's Epic Theater. Also included are his penetrating study "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," an enlightening discussion of translation as a literary mode, and Benjamin's theses on the philosophy of history. Hannah Arendt selected the essays for this volume and introduces them with a classic essay about Benjamin's life in dark times. Also included is a new preface by Leon Wieseltier that explores Benjamin's continued relevance for our times.
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Fama, that much-coveted goddess, has many faces, and fame comes in many sorts and sizes-from the one-week notoriety of the cover story to the splendor of an everlasting name. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Fama, that much-coveted goddess, has many faces, and fame comes in many sorts and sizes-from the one-week notoriety of the cover story to the splendor of an everlasting name. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Walter Benjamin is easily one of the great German prose writers of our century, despite being almost impossible to classify. His subject matter is frequently literary, but he always transcends his subject matter to touch upon issues in philosophy, art, history, Marxism, and Western culture, illuminating (no pun intended) all he discusses. His essays on Proust and Kafka are priceless, and his essays on "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and the theses on the philsophy of history, are classic.
But the best reason to read Benjamin is his prose. There are images in his essays on Proust and Kafka that are as superb as anything in Proust and Kafka. That is saying a lot, but it is true. As a philosopher, I value his example which proves that one can write meaningfully on philosophical topics, and yet write well. This collection of his essays, ILLUMINATIONS, is preferable to the second collection to appear in English, REFLECTIONS, though that one is also worth the time and effort.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In addition to the 'classic' Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction [a must-read essay for all culture vultures, artists and flaneurs]
this volume contains the essay called, 'the task of the translator': which not only theorises about how we make a translation, but identifies that
a translation is in fact a new work in its own right. This is all the more interesting, as this book is a translation, expertly created by Harry Zorn, with a snappy introduction from Hannah Arendt.
Benjamin's work is also crucial [with regard to the above essay], for those interested in Postcolonial theory and the likes of Homi Bhabha.
Another essay that I enjoy reading is 'unpacking my library'. A candid account of Benjamin unpacking his boxes of books and rediscovering old friends and memories through these treasured volumes.
The range of topics covered by Benjamin is vast and his Theses on Philosophy of History has yet to be fully acknowledged as a crucial twentieth century text.
I don't like the front cover - so I choose not to look it.
this volume contains the essay called, 'the task of the translator': which not only theorises about how we make a translation, but identifies that
a translation is in fact a new work in its own right. This is all the more interesting, as this book is a translation, expertly created by Harry Zorn, with a snappy introduction from Hannah Arendt.
Benjamin's work is also crucial [with regard to the above essay], for those interested in Postcolonial theory and the likes of Homi Bhabha.
Another essay that I enjoy reading is 'unpacking my library'. A candid account of Benjamin unpacking his boxes of books and rediscovering old friends and memories through these treasured volumes.
The range of topics covered by Benjamin is vast and his Theses on Philosophy of History has yet to be fully acknowledged as a crucial twentieth century text.
I don't like the front cover - so I choose not to look it.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Walter Benjamin, melancholically described as a Jewish-German philosopher, who anticipated the fate of the modern society, is often regarded as an obscure writer. But this book depicts the map of his thinking very clearly, so that I can understand well the original mind of Benjamin. I was very interested in Benjamin's commentary on Kafka. He described Kafka as the figure in 'the purity and beauty of a failure.' The intimacy between Benjamin and Kafka also frequently quoted as the example saying Benjamin's disposition of mysticism. However, it is not easy to accept that Jewish mysticism influences his account of Kafka more than his own interests in allegory. Although his commentary of Kafka seems to be obscure, his attention to Kafka can be caused not so much by mystical affection but rather by Kafka¡¯s allegorical aspects. The letter to Gerhard Scholem, 'Some Reflections on Kafka', clearly shows what Benjamin originally intends to point out in Kafka¡¯s works: the work of art in which only the products of wisdom¡¯s decay remain. It would do justice to Benjamin that we think his commentary of Kafka to be derived from his interests of allegory. For in allegory, as Benjamin says, truth is just to be a rumor. In this respect, Benjamin¡¯s commentary on Kafka would give a clue by which his project could be unveiled in terms of dialectical thinking. I'd like to recommend this book for whom wants to know one of the most unique cultural and Marxist theorist in 20th century.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dense, dated, and stodgily translated
With his love of flâneurs, his intense introspection, his ambiguous relationship with technology and mass society, and his championing of Kafka and Proust, Walter Benjamin ought to... Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2009 by General Accident
Synopsis from back cover
Only since his death have Benjamin's works, literary essays, general reflections, aphorisms and probings into cultural phenomena, achieved fame outside his native Germany, where a... Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2008 by Mary_10
Artistically compelling.
Benjamin tries to turn sociology into a classical language and yet not really turning it away. This is a great book for anyone who wishes to understand the different mediums of... Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2001
Perfection
This book is a must read for students of literature, philosophy, history, or aesthetics.
Published on 7 April 1999
Outstanding Philosopher
Walter Benjamin was an extremely influencial, wonderfully insightful writer and philosopher. Allow this work may seem dated, the underlying concepts and ideas still hold true for... Read more
Published on 17 April 1997
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