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Resumen
Resumen
Walter Benjamin became a published writer at the age of seventeen. Yet the first stirrings of this most original of critical minds--penned during the years in which he transformed himself from the comfortable son of a haute-bourgeois German Jewish family into the nomadic, uncompromising philosopher-critic we have since come to appreciate--have until now remained largely unavailable in English. Early Writings, 1910-1917 rectifies this situation, documenting the formative intellectual experiences of one of the twentieth century's most resolutely independent thinkers.
Here we see the young Benjamin in his various roles as moralist, cultural critic, school reformer, and poet-philosopher. The diversity of interest and profundity of thought characteristic of his better-known work from the 1920s and 30s are already in evidence, as we witness the emergence of critical projects that would occupy Benjamin throughout his intellectual career: the role of the present in historical remembrance, the relationship of the intellectual to political action, the idea of truth in works of art, and the investigation of language as the veiled medium of experience.
Even at this early stage, a recognizably Benjaminian way of thinking comes into view--a daring, boundary-crossing enterprise that does away with classical antitheses in favor of the relentlessly-seeking critical consciousness that produced the groundbreaking works of his later years. With the publication of these early writings, our portrait of one of the most significant intellects of the twentieth century edges closer to completion.
Reseñas (3)
Reseña de Publisher's Weekly
This is a valuable addition to the available work in English of one of the seminal Jewish critical thinkers of the 20th century, author of the massive Arcades Project. The mostly lambent translations by editor Eiland and others-with notes that sometimes exceed in length the juvenilia itself-help place Benjamin's later work within the context of his early preoccupations. In fact, a term like juvenilia does many of these largely polished short works a disservice. Benjamin's central preoccupation, as he moved from the University of Freiberg in 1912 to the University of Berlin, is with the youth movement of his time fighting to broaden their education beyond vocational and professional training. There are few frills within these pages. Reform is in, as is a modernist lyricism, even in Benjamin's high school verse. But Benjamin mostly works in a handful of prose forms, including Socratic or allegorical dialogue. His subjects range from romanticism to "Experience" as viewed by youth, from a rambling but fascinating meditation on "Metaphysics of Youth" to the problematic corrupter-of-youth, Socrates, and on to Balzac and Dostoyevski. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Revisar OPCIONES
This well-planned, beautifully translated volume collects Benjamin's earliest writings and is a welcome addition to the corpus of his contributions to the fields of philosophy, aesthetics, politics, and literary criticism. From his first attempts as an author in 1910 when he was a student in Munich, Benjamin refined his voice as one of Europe's most independent, fiercely metaphysical writers. Here Eiland (literature, MIT) et al. allow the reader to witness the emergence of the themes that would occupy Benjamin in the productive decades to follow: language and truth, historical memory, the relation of experience to the active life. The 45 original, direct pieces collected here constitute a crucial context for his developing thought. This collection stands alongside Benjamin's Selected Writings, ed. by Marcus Bullock and Michael Jennings (1996-2003; v. 4, CH, Dec'03, 41-2047) as more evidence of Benjamin's stature as a thinker of world-historical force. Those interested in philosophy, letters, German literature, and intellectual history will undoubtedly find this volume immensely fruitful. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. M. Uebel University of Texas
Library Journal Review
This collection of early writings by the literary critic and philosopher Benjamin were written when he was in his late teens to early twenties. While there are some poems and short stories included, the majority of the pieces are essays on a range of topics from education reform to aesthetics and theological theories. In certain essays, the influence of philosophers and poets such as Nietzsche and Goethe are apparent in Benjamin's emphasis on the aesthetic experience as opposed to what he saw as the rigid idealism and false romanticism of his day. Others show Kant's influence on Benjamin's theories of epistemology and human perception. In the introduction, editor and translator Eiland (literature, MIT) does a wonderful job of explaining how the essays relate to events in Benjamin's early adult life and to the evolution of his theories. (Some of the pieces are Eiland's revisions of others' translations.) VERDICT These pieces offer the reader valuable insight into Benjamin's philosophical thought and will appeal to scholars and students familiar with his later, better-known writings. Highly recommended for libraries and Benjamin's readers.-Scott Duimstra, Capital Area Dist. Lib., Lansing, MI (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Tabla de contenido
Abbreviations and a Note on the Texts | p. vii |
Translator's Introduction | p. 1 |
1 The Poet (1910) | p. 14 |
2 At Night: Thoughts Suggested by a Schumann Composition (1910) | p. 16 |
3 The Three Who Sought Religion (1910) | p. 18 |
4 Storm (1910) | p. 22 |
5 Spring's Hideaway (1910) | p. 24 |
6 Sleeping Beauty (1911) | p. 26 |
7 Diary, Pentecost 1911 | p. 33 |
8 The Free School Community (1911) | p. 39 |
9 The Pan of Evening (ca. 1911) | p. 46 |
10 Curriculum Vitae (1911) | p. 49 |
11 Epilogue (1912) | p. 53 |
12 School Reform: A Cultural Movement (1912) | p. 57 |
13 Dialogue on the Religiosity of the Present (1912) | p. 62 |
14 Quiet Story (ca. 1912) | p. 85 |
15 Estranged Land (1913) | p. 88 |
16 Teaching and Valuation (1913) | p. 90 |
17 Romanticism: An Undelivered Address to Students (1913) | p. 101 |
18 Moral Education (1913) | p. 107 |
19 ôExperienceö (1913) | p. 116 |
20 Thoughts on Gerhart Hauptmann's Festival Play (1913) | p. 120 |
21 The Aviator (ca. 1913) | p. 126 |
22 Death of the Father: A Short Story (1913) | p. 128 |
23 Romanticism: Reply of the ôUnsanctifiedö (1913) | p. 132 |
24 Youth Was Silent (1913) | p. 135 |
25 Conversation on Love (ca. 1913) | p. 139 |
26 The Metaphysics of Youth (1913-1914) | p. 144 |
27 Student Authors' Evenings (1913-1914) | p. 161 |
28 Erotic Education (1913-1914) | p. 166 |
29 The Religious Position of the New Youth (1914) | p. 168 |
30 Two Poems by Friedrich Hölderlin: ôThe Poet's Courageö and ôTimidityö | p. 171 |
31 The Life of Students (1914-1915) | p. 197 |
32 A Child's View of Color (1914-1915) | p. 211 |
33 The Rainbow: A Conversation about Imagination (ca. 1915) | p. 214 |
34 The Rainbow, or The Art of Paradise (ca. 1915) | p. 224 |
35 The Happiness of Ancient Man (1916) | p. 228 |
36 Socrates (1916) | p. 233 |
37 On the Middle Ages (1916) | p. 238 |
38 Trauerspiel and Tragedy (1916) | p. 241 |
39 The Role of Language in Trauerspiel and Tragedy (1916) | p. 246 |
40 On Language as Such and on the Language of Man (1916) | p. 251 |
41 Aphorisms (ca. 1916-1917) | p. 270 |
42 Balzac (ca. 1916-1917) | p. 273 |
43 Dostoevsky's The Idiot (1917) | p. 275 |
44 On Seeing the Morning Light (1917) | p. 281 |
45 The Centaur (1917) | p. 283 |
Credits | p. 287 |
Index | p. 291 |