The Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time

Peter Fenves

Published by Stanford University Press 2010

The Messianic Reduction

Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time

Peter Fenves

In the series Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804777285

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Messianic Reduction is the first study of Benjamin's early philosophy that takes into consideration the full range of his work, with particular emphasis on its complex relation to phenomenology, Kant and neo-Kantianism, and certain developments in mathematics.

Author / Editor information

Peter Fenves is Joan and Sarepta Harrison Professor of Literature, Professor of German, Comparative Literary Studies, and Jewish Studies, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Political Science, and English at Northwestern University. His most recent book is Late Kant: Towards Another Law of the Earth (2003).

Reviews

M. V. Marder:
"This book is an exceptional study of Walter Benjamin's early writings in the philosophical context. Of particular interest is the sustained argument regarding Benjamin's contributions to phenomenology and is engagement in the debate with neo-Kantian thinkers. . . Most valuable, perhaps, is the meditation, weaving its way through the entire book, on the transformation of phenomenological reduction in Benjamin's oeuvre. . . This is necessary reading for anyone interested in the intersection of phenomenology and critical theory. Highly recommended."

Giorgio Agamben:
"Each of the authors, arguments, and problems that Peter Fenves delicately yet disruptively touches upon appears in a new light. This book reveals to us more than a new Benjamin. In the compelling interpretation that constitutes its center and theoretical nucleus, The Messianic Reduction also offers us a meditation on the shape of time that every reflection on history and time, from now on, will need to confront."

Carol Jacobs:
"What The Messianic Reduction accomplishes is simply astonishing. It is an intricate dance among meticulous readings of the early Benjamin and readings of the philosophical context in which he wrote. Fenves offers us not simply an original window on Benjamin's early works, but also takes up issues that are critical to his entire opus. This extraordinarily ambitious volume will be a keystone to the understanding of Benjamin's work and of his place in twentieth-century philosophy."

Brian Hanrahan:
"Peter Fenves's The Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time traces Benjamin's rethinking of experience and temporality to his formative years as a student of philosophy during and after the First World War . . . [U]ltimately revelatory."

David Gleicher:
"Fenves's focus on the messianic reeduction and the shape of time is in its own right an important contribution to the non-specialist's general understanding of Benjamin's thought . . . Fenves's book is certainly valuable as a serious introduction to key elements of Benjamin's early thought, elements that have been relatively overlooked amidst the extensive literature on Benjamin."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Note on Abbreviations and Translations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction: The Course of the Argument Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Substance Poem Versus Function Poem: “Two Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
2. Entering the Phenomenological School and Discovering the Color of Shame Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
3. “Existence Toward Space”: Two “Rainbows” from Around 1916 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
4. “The Problem of Historical Time”: Conversing with Scholem, Criticizing Heidegger in 1916 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
5. Meaning in the Proper Sense of the Word: “On Language as Such and on Human Language” and Related Logico-Linguistic Studies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
6. Pure Knowledge and the Continuity of Experience: “On the Program of the Coming Philosophy” and Its Supplements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
7. The Political Counterpart to Pure Practical Reason: From Kant’s Doctrine of Right to Benjamin’s Category of Justice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Conclusion: The Shape of Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Appendix: Translations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 336

eBook

Published: December 14, 2010
ISBN: 9780804777285