On Goethe

Author: Walter Benjamin, Peter Fenves, Kevin McLaughlin and Susan Bernstein Series: Cultural Memory in the Present

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Description

On Goethe contains the full range of Walter Benjamin's reflections on the central figure in modern German culture. The writings in this volume—newly translated, fully annotated, and framed by an extensive introduction—display a variety of styles and cover a vast array of topics. The collection revolves around two strikingly different essays. Whereas "Goethe's Elective Affinities" develops a theory of critique in which a work is illuminated wholly from within itself, an article Benjamin wrote on Goethe for the Soviet Encyclopedia represents his first large-scale attempt to elaborate a historical-materialist methodology. The other thirty translations stand in similarly productive tension with one another. Some are concerned with concepts of beauty and categories of the aesthetic, others with the relation of art to politics and the status of "classical authors" in contemporary culture, and still others with what remains of humanistic traditions in the wake of their disappearance under fascist regimes and what synthesis is required for the construction of a historical object. The volume provides a glimpse into the laboratory of Benjamin's thought, while granting readers a series of insights into the epochal phenomena that gather around the name "Goethe."

Critic Reviews

"Throughout his career, Benjamin pondered the secret of Goethe's genius. The answers he gave in this scrupulously edited volume illuminate not only the legacy of Germany's most eminent literary figure, but also its unexpected impact on its greatest critic."—Martin Jay, author of Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School Under Pressure "This collection of Benjamin's reflections on Goethe is inspiring testimony to the contemporary relevance of the encounter between the most canonical German author and the most idiosyncratic modern German-Jewish thinker. An essential resource for future research."—Vivian Liska, author of German-Jewish Thought and its Afterlife: A Tenuous Legacy

About the Author

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) was a German Jewish philosopher. Susan Bernstein is Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies, Brown University.Peter Fenves is Joan and Serapta Harrison Professor of Literature, Northwestern University.Kevin McLaughlin is George Hazard Crooker Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and German Studies, Brown University.