| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £1.00
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £1.00, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A companion volume to Illuminations, the first collection of Walter Benjamin's writings, Reflections presents a further sampling of his wide-ranging work. Here Benjamin evolves a theory of language as the medium of all creation, discusses theater and surrealism, reminisces about Berlin in the 1920s, recalls conversations with Bertolt Brecht, and provides travelogues of various cities, including Moscow under Stalin. He moves seamlessly from literary criticism to autobiography to philosophical-theological speculations, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest and most versatile writers of the twentieth century. Also included is a new preface by Leon Wieseltier that explores Benjamin's continued relevance for our times.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Now let me call back those who introduced me to the city. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Now let me call back those who introduced me to the city. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Walter Benjamin is now recognized as one of the most accute analysts of literary and sociological phenomena of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A companion volume to Illuminations, the earlier collection of Benjamin's writings, Reflections presents a new sampling of his wide-ranging work. In addition to literary criticism, it contains autobiograohical narration and travel pieces, aphorisms, and philosophical-theological speculations. Most of Benjamin's writings on Brecht and his celebrated essay on Karl Kraus are included."
Enjoy charming anecdotes like "Hashish in Marseilles" and the sardonic incites of "One-Way Street" (Germans, Drink German Beer!) as you peruse the timeless thoughts of a persecuted man.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
A Portable Benjamin
6 Dec 2004
Format:Paperback
There is much to love about Walter Benjamin. His is a supple, syncretic, synthetic mind, and his prose just sings-even in translation. Because Benjamin roamed about in whole territorities of thought, it's nearly impossible to draw together a representative selection of his essays without overlooking something important. The collection Illuminations is a delgith; Reflections, a kind of companion volume, includes much material that reflects the Benjamin corpus from a non-Illuminations trajectory.
Benjamin's essay "Critique of Violence" is worth the price of the book on its own; while I disagree with his idea that a state must have a monopoly on violence (more likely that a state desires such a monopoly but has to play make-believe because it can't complete a monopoly...), Benjamin's analysis is crisp and precise. It's as good as the "Treatise on Nomadology" of Deleuze and Guattari, which covers the same kind of ground.
This sounds cheesy, but I really think Benjamin's example of ranging far and wide and deep into detail when inquiring into something, not letting his hang-ups hinder his thinking, is something for an intellectual to aspire to. And he's a joy to read.
Benjamin's essay "Critique of Violence" is worth the price of the book on its own; while I disagree with his idea that a state must have a monopoly on violence (more likely that a state desires such a monopoly but has to play make-believe because it can't complete a monopoly...), Benjamin's analysis is crisp and precise. It's as good as the "Treatise on Nomadology" of Deleuze and Guattari, which covers the same kind of ground.
This sounds cheesy, but I really think Benjamin's example of ranging far and wide and deep into detail when inquiring into something, not letting his hang-ups hinder his thinking, is something for an intellectual to aspire to. And he's a joy to read.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
"A Highly Polished Mind"
29 Dec 2000
Format:Paperback
Reflections presents for the reader the great range that Benjamin had as a writer, critic and occidentalist. This collection further demonstrates Benjamin's acute awareness of the literature of his time, as evidenced by his essay on 'Surrealism', which is as fine a reflection on its themes as the manifestos of Andre Breton. Furthermore, his writings and conversations with Bertolt Brecht show Benjamin to be very close to the thinking of the author himself. Also included is his celebrated essay on Karl Kraus,"the Jewish Swift of Vienna". But what I like most about this collection are the amorphisms and autobiographical sketches of 'Marseilles' and 'One-way Street'. In his images of Marseilles Benjamin creates an "exegesis of the city" that is as fine as any poet could offer; spellbinding, acute, and beautiful. As well, his wit and insight into social phenomena is detailed in 'One-Way Street', and also in the piece on Moscow, which lets the western reader experience a rare witnessing of the Russian city in the years after the Revolution in a way that recalls Dziga Vertov. Finally, the inclusion of several pieces of Benjamin's philosophical-theological speculations show that he was a man of great breath and wisedom, and further showcase the wide range of his highly polished mind.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Wise and witty, with a keen eye for detail
22 Oct 2004
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This collection of Benjamin essays was selected and introduced by Peter Demetz based on an order prepared by Hannah Arendt. It is a companion piece to Illuminations, a siimilar volume prepared and introduced by Arendt in the late sixties. Unlike Illuminations, which focuses on the literary essays Benjamin wrote, Reflections is intended to present a wide variety of subject and style.
In his introduction, Demetz urges the reader to listen to Benjamin in a musical rather than a literary way. Indeed, this book works very well if you approach it as an impressionistic meander through the style and range of thought present in the essays. I would be hard-pressed to describe how to rationally link the autobiographic travel writing of "A Berlin Chronicle" with the aphorisms of "One Way Street" or the Marxist thought in the essays on Brecht. All the same, they feel linked as a reading experience. That linkage may be more on the sound than the subject-- the sound of a very smart man thinking very hard and with great elegance.
Benjamin is never a dry writer. Some other reviewers have remarked on his humor, which definitely exists. It is also worth highlighting his keen eye for detail, his openness to self-examination, his practical advice about writing, and his distinctive turn of phrase which somehow survives through the translation process.
It would be difficult to find a book that I would recommend more highly.
In his introduction, Demetz urges the reader to listen to Benjamin in a musical rather than a literary way. Indeed, this book works very well if you approach it as an impressionistic meander through the style and range of thought present in the essays. I would be hard-pressed to describe how to rationally link the autobiographic travel writing of "A Berlin Chronicle" with the aphorisms of "One Way Street" or the Marxist thought in the essays on Brecht. All the same, they feel linked as a reading experience. That linkage may be more on the sound than the subject-- the sound of a very smart man thinking very hard and with great elegance.
Benjamin is never a dry writer. Some other reviewers have remarked on his humor, which definitely exists. It is also worth highlighting his keen eye for detail, his openness to self-examination, his practical advice about writing, and his distinctive turn of phrase which somehow survives through the translation process.
It would be difficult to find a book that I would recommend more highly.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Medical, Legal & Social Sciences > Philosophy
- Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Germany
- Books > Biography > Religious > Judaism
- Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism
- Books > Religion & Spirituality
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
