Philosophy and melancholy : Benjamin's early reflections on theater and language / Ilit Ferber.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ferber, Ilit.

Series:

Cultural memory in the present

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940.

Benjamin, Walter.

Melancholy (Philosophy).

Philosophy, German--20th century.

Philosophy, German.

Physical Description:

x, 241 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2013]

Summary:

This book traces the concept of melancholy in Walter Benjamin's early writings. Rather than focusing on the overtly melancholic subject matter of Benjamin's work or the unhappy circumstances of his own fate, Ferber considers the concept's implications for his early thought. Informed by Heidegger's discussion of moods and their importance for philosophical thought, she contends that a melancholic mood is the organizing principle or structure of Benjamin's early metaphysics and ontology. Her novel analysis of Benjamin's arguments about theater and language features a discussion of the Trauerspiel book that is among the first in English to scrutinize the baroque plays themselves. Philosophy and Melancholy also contributes to the history of philosophy by establishing a strong relationship between Benjamin and other philosophers, including Leibniz, Kant, and Heidegger. Book jacket.

Contents:

Benjamin and Freud : at the juncture of melancholy loss

Commitment and loyalty to the lost object

The intentionless nature of truth

Work and play : a view of melancholic productivity

The Trauerspiel : reflections on the baroque

Expressions of pain in the Trauerspiel

The bombastic nature of expression in the Trauerspiel

Pain and spectacle : the figure of the martyr

Death and meaning : the figure of the ghost

Language and loss : Benjamin's concept of expression

Creation and loss : "on language as such"

Lament : language and sadness

The ghosts of language : "the task of the translator"

The "epistemo-critical prologue"

The "monad" : Leibniz and Benjamin

The monads' configuration as a hierarchy

A pre-established harmony : Benjamin's conception of truth as harmony

Stimmung : philosophy and mood.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-231) and index.

ISBN:

9780804785198

0804785198

9780804785204

0804785201

OCLC:

818953181