Early Writings (1910-1917)

by Benjamin, Walter; Eiland, Howard

• ISBN13: 9780674049932
• ISBN10: 0674049934
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-09
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations and a Note on the Texts	p. vii
Translator's Introduction	p. 1
The Poet (1910)	p. 14
At Night: Thoughts Suggested by a Schumann Composition (1910)	p. 16
The Three Who Sought Religion (1910)	p. 18
Storm (1910)	p. 22
Spring's Hideaway (1910)	p. 24
Sleeping Beauty (1911)	p. 26
Diary, Pentecost 1911	p. 33
The Free School Community (1911)	p. 39
The Pan of Evening (ca. 1911)	p. 46
Curriculum Vitae (1911)	p. 49
Epilogue (1912)	p. 53
School Reform: A Cultural Movement (1912)	p. 57
Dialogue on the Religiosity of the Present (1912)	p. 62
Quiet Story (ca. 1912)	p. 85
Estranged Land (1913)	p. 88
Teaching and Valuation (1913)	p. 90
Romanticism: An Undelivered Address to Students (1913)	p. 101
Moral Education (1913)	p. 107
ôExperienceö (1913)	p. 116
Thoughts on Gerhart Hauptmann's Festival Play (1913)	p. 120
The Aviator (ca. 1913)	p. 126
Death of the Father: A Short Story (1913)	p. 128
Romanticism: Reply of the ôUnsanctifiedö (1913)	p. 132
Youth Was Silent (1913)	p. 135
Conversation on Love (ca. 1913)	p. 139
The Metaphysics of Youth (1913-1914)	p. 144
Student Authors' Evenings (1913-1914)	p. 161
Erotic Education (1913-1914)	p. 166
The Religious Position of the New Youth (1914)	p. 168
Two Poems by Friedrich Hölderlin: ôThe Poet's Courageö and ôTimidityö	p. 171
The Life of Students (1914-1915)	p. 197
A Child's View of Color (1914-1915)	p. 211
The Rainbow: A Conversation about Imagination (ca. 1915)	p. 214
The Rainbow, or The Art of Paradise (ca. 1915)	p. 224
The Happiness of Ancient Man (1916)	p. 228
Socrates (1916)	p. 233
On the Middle Ages (1916)	p. 238
Trauerspiel and Tragedy (1916)	p. 241
The Role of Language in Trauerspiel and Tragedy (1916)	p. 246
On Language as Such and on the Language of Man (1916)	p. 251
Aphorisms (ca. 1916-1917)	p. 270
Balzac (ca. 1916-1917)	p. 273
Dostoevsky's The Idiot (1917)	p. 275
On Seeing the Morning Light (1917)	p. 281
The Centaur (1917)	p. 283
Credits	p. 287
Index	p. 291
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