Postsecular Benjamin : agency and tradition / Brian Britt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Britt, Brian M., 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940.

Benjamin, Walter.

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940--Religion.

Philosophy and religion.

Philosophy, Modern.

Postsecularism.

Religion.

Physical Description:

xiii, 210 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2016.

Summary:

In Walter Benjamin's work, religion often marks a boundary between scholarly camps, but it rarely receives close and sustained scrutiny. Benjamin's most influential writings pertain to modern art and culture, but he frequently used religious language while rejecting both secularism and religious revival. Benjamin was, in today's terms, postsecular. Postsecular Benjamin explicates Benjamin's engagements with religious traditions as resources for contemporary debates on secularism, conflict, and identity. Brian Britt argues that what animates this work on tradition is the question of human agency, which he pursues through lively and sustained experimentation with ways of thinking, reading, and writing. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Benjamin's Baroque and the culture wars

Secularism between Scholem and Benjamin

Madness and the scandal of tradition

Hybrid identities : Benjamin, Auerbach, and Orientalism

Violence and Biblical tradition

Critical vision, from simulacra to creaturely agency

Identity and survival in German men and women (Deutsche Menschen)

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780810133198

0810133199

9780810133204

0810133202

OCLC:

922729042