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Biography of Walter BenjaminName: Walter BenjaminBirth Date: July 15, 1892 Death Date: September 27, 1940 Place of Birth: Berlin, Germany Nationality: German Gender: Male Occupations: philosopher, literary critic Walter Benjamin Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), a German philosopher and critic, published widely on such topics as technology, language, literature, the arts, and society. He left a large body of mostly unfinished work that has been slowly published in his native country. Since the 1980s, this fragmented work has elicited much commentary, including several thousand studies."We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art," wrote the French poet and essayist, Paul Valery, in his work Pieces Sur L'Art. Benjamin used that thought as the basis for what became one of his most famous essays, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. It served as a foundation for the evolution of thought that emerged from the Postmodern school philosophy. In the face of Nazi oppression, the world lost …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…Photography, 1931; Theses on the Philosophy of History, 1942; Illuminations, 1961; Understanding Brecht, 1966; Moscow Diary, 1968. His works that have not yet been translated into English are, Goethes "Wahiverwandtschaften",1924-25 (title translated as: "Goethe's 'Elective Affinities' "); Berlliner Kindheit un Neunzehnhundert, (memoirs) 1950; and Derr Beegriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romaantik, (criticisms) 1973. The full scope of his work was not realized even 60 years after his death, in part due to the slowness in publishing and translating hundreds of his works. Critics are in general agreement that Benjamin possessed a uniquely intuitive and keen mind. He was perhaps the most brilliant intellectual of his generation. Further Reading Benjamin, Walter, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, English translation, 1968.Gilloch, Graeme, Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations, Blackwell, 2002.The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 12, 15th edition, 1995.Scholem, Gershom. On Jews and Judaism in Crisis, Schocken Books, 1976.Literature Resource Center, The Gale Group, 1999. Available at: http://www.galenet.com. |