Abstract
This paper is a rereading of Peter Fenves's readings of leading texts among Benjamin's early writings; readings contained in Fenves's important work Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time. Of chief concern here is a crucial lacuna in Fenves's idea of Benjamin's thought, a blind-spot that reveals, in relief, Benjamin's radical and consistent rejection of a fundamental Cartesian/Kantian premise: what is commonly termed the ergodic axiom (aka “identity axiom”). In these early writings, it is argued, Benjamin was indeed constructing a new philosophical foundation, residing in dialogism. And remarkably, an almost identical foundation simultaneously was being built in Russia by Mikhail Bakhtin and Valentin Volosinov, leading members of the Bakhtin circle (1918–1929).
About the author
David Gleicher (b. 1949) is an associate professor at Adelphi University 〈gleicher@adelphi.edu〉. His research interests include social semiotics, political economics, Benjamin, and Kafka. His publications include “Who survived the Titanic? A logistic regression analysis” (with L. Stevans, 2004); “The working poor: a comprehensive study” (with L. Stevans, 2005); Rescue of the third class on the Titanic (2006); and “Social action, dialogism and the imaginary community: toward a dialogical critique of political economy” (2011).
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Munich/Boston
