Walter Benjamin

Benjamin at the Abbey of Pontigny, 1938. Photo by Gisèle Freund.
Born	July 15, 1892(1892-07-15) Berlin, German Empire
Died	September 26, 1940(1940-09-26) (aged 48) Portbou, Catalonia, Spain
Web	Aaaaarg, UbuWeb Sound, UbuWeb Film & Video, Wikipedia

Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a literary critic, philosopher, social critic, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist. Combining elements of German idealism or Romanticism, historical materialism and Jewish mysticism, Benjamin made enduring and influential contributions to aesthetic theory and Western Marxism, and is associated with the Frankfurt School.

Life and work

This section is based upon Marianne Franklin's article on Walter Benjamin (2003), pp 14-16.

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) was born in Berlin, Germany, into a ‘wealthy run-of-the-mill assimilated Jewish family’. He was raised in a well-off quarter of the city and came of age during the Weimar Republic years before becoming a political refugee, fleeing to Paris in 1933. The historical record of his life and career has been clarified with several recent detailed biographies. He often planned to open a bookstore due to his passion for book collecting, but eventually established himself by 1928 as a formidable critic. He made his living through his both journals and newspapers, and only later received a stipend from the Frankfurt School for Passagenwerk during the years of his exile, 1933 - 1940.

The longevity and extent of Walter Benjamin’s posthumous fame is due to the great breadth of his intellectual pursuits, which allowed him to circulate through the most important artistic and intellectual groups, such as G Magazine and Bataille's discussion group, the Collège de Sociologie. His publishing career while alive spanned two decades, yet begun in the 1990s by Harvard University Press, the bulk of his voluminous writings are now published. The rise of Nazism prevented him from establishing a university career. His scholarly research appeared throughout the 1920s, but slowed during the 1930s, during which time he worked on Passagenwerk. With the publication of his collected work through the joint effort of Theodor Adorno and others in 1955, Passagenwerk (Arcades Project) was first published in English at last in 1999.

Benjamin had delayed leaving Paris until the dangers became pressing, and was stopped on the Franco-Spanish border in September of 1940. In Arendt’s account, ‘the immediate occasion for Benjamin’s suicide was an uncommon stroke of bad luck’. Expecting to be sent back to Nazi Germany where certain death awaited him, he chose to take a high dose of morphine. The historical and intellectual resonances of this personal choice have become woven into the enigmatic quality of Benjamin's reception.

A crucial aspect to Walter Benjamin’s intellectual legacy is his role in critical theory, the revision of Marxist theory based at the University of Frankfurt. His close – albeit stormy – intellectual relationship with Adorno and Horkheimer, the doyens of the Frankfurt School, is an important theme in the literature. Benjamin, who ‘was no-one’s disciple’, followed but never joined the European Communist party, visited the Soviet Union yet also had an abiding interest in Jewish mysticism; contributed to aesthetic and architectural theory and philosophy of history; was an accomplished translator; wrote (famously) about Goethe, Proust, Baudelaire and Kafka, book collecting, and technological change.

Works

Monographs

• Der Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik [The Concept of Art Criticism in German Romanticism], Bern: Francke, 1920, 111 pp. Dissertation defended at Bern University in 1919.
• Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels [The Origin of German Tragedy], Berlin, 1928; new ed., ed. Rolf Tiedemann, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1963; 2000, 240 pp. [1] [2]
  • Origin of the German Trauerspiel, trans. Howard Eiland, Harvard University Press, 2019, 308 pp. (English)
• Einbahnstraße [One-Way Street], Berlin, 1928; repr., Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001, 128 pp. [3]
• Berliner Kindheit um Neunzehnhundert [A Berlin Childhood Around 1900], afterw. Theodor W. Adorno, postscr. Rolf Tiedemann, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1950; 1987; 2010, 117 pp. Written during the late 1930s. [4]

Essays (selection)

• "Kleine Geschichte der Photographie", Die Literarische Welt, 7:38 (18 September 1931), pp 3-4; 7:39 (25 September 1931), pp 3-4; and 7:40 (2 October 1931), pp 7-8. Repr. in Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit: Drei Studien zur Kunstsoziologie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1963; 2003, pp 45-64; repr. in Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 2, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1977, pp 368-385. (German)
  • "A Short History of Photography", trans. Stanley Mitchell, Screen 13:1 (1972), pp 5-26. [5] (English)
  • "Kratkaya istoriya fotografii", trans. S.A. Romashko, in Benjamin, Proizvedenie iskusstva v epokhu ego tekhnicheskoy vosproizvodimosti. Izbrannye esse, Moscow: Medium, 1996, pp 66-91, n229-231. (Russian)
  • "Petite histoire de la photographie", Etudes photographiques 1 (Nov 1996), pp 6-39; 1998. (French)
  • "A Small History of Photography", in Benjamin, One-Way Street and Other Writings, London: NLB, 1979, pp 240-257; repr. as "Little History of Photography", in Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. 2, Part 2, 1931-1934, Harvard University Press, 1999, pp 507-530. (English)
  • "Malé dejiny fotografie", in Benjamin, Iluminácie, ed. Adam Bžoch, Bratislava: Kalligram 1999, pp 160-174. (Slovak)
  • "Malé dějiny fotografie", in Co je to fotografie, ed. Karel Císař, Prague: Herrmann & synové, 2004, pp 9-19. (Czech)

• "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit" appeared in 5 main versions.
  • "L’œuvre d’art à l’époque de sa reproduction méchanisée", trans. Pierre Klossowski, Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung V, Paris: Félix Alcan, 1936, pp 40-68; repr. in Benjamin, Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Bd 16: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2013, pp 164-206. Shortened [Vierte Fassung] translation of the second version [Zweite Fassung] of the essay. (French)
    • "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit", in Benjamin, Benjamins Schriften, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1955; repr. in Benjamin, Illuminationen: Ausgewahlte Schriften, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1961; repr. in Benjamin, Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit: Drei Studien zur Kunstsoziologie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1963, pp 7-44; 2003. (German)
    • "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility", trans. Harry Zohn, in Benjamin, Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, 1968; 2007, pp 217-251. (English)
    • "Umjetničko djelo u doba svoje tehničke reproduktivnosti", trans. Snješka Knežević, Život umjetnosti 6, Zagreb, 1968, pp 67-80. (Serbo-Croatian)
    • "Umělecké dílo v době své technické reprodukovatelnosti", trans. Věra Saudková, in Benjamin, Dílo a jeho zdroj, Prague: Odeon, 1979, pp 17-47; repr. in Benjamin, Literárněvědné studie. Výbor z díla I, Prague: Oikoymenh, 2009, pp 299-326. [6] (Czech)
    • "Proizvedenie iskusstva v epokhu ego tekhnicheskoy vosproizvodimosti", trans. S.A. Romashko, in Benjamin, Proizvedenie iskusstva v epokhu ego tekhnicheskoy vosproizvodimosti. Izbrannye esse, Moscow: Medium, 1996, pp 15-65, n226-229. (Russian)
    • "Umelecké dielo v epoche svojej technickej reprodukovateľnosti", in Benjamin, Iluminácie, trans. Adam Bžoch, Bratislava: Kalligram, 1999, pp 194-225. (Slovak)
  • "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Dritte Fassung)", in Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften I, Teil 2, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980, pp 471-508; repr. in Benjamin, Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Bd 16: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2013, pp 96-163. Written 1936-39. [7] (German)
    • "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility (Third Version)", in Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. 4: 1938-1940, Harvard University Press, 2003, pp 251-283. (English)
    • "A obra de arte na época da sua possibilidade de reprodução técnica. 3ª versão", in Benjamin, A modernidade, ed. & trans. João Barrento, Lisboa: Assírio e Alvim, 2006, pp 207-241. (Portuguese)
    • L'Œuvre d'art à l'époque de sa reproductibilité technique. (Version de 1939), trans. Frédéric Joly, Paris: Payot, 2013. (French)
  • "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Zweite Fassung)", in Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, Bd. 7, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1989, pp 350-384; repr. in Benjamin, Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Bd 16: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2013, pp 52-95. Revision and expansion (by 7 manuscript pages) of the first version of the essay. Written late December 1935-beginning of February 1936. First published in 1989. This second version represents the form in which Benjamin originally wished to see the work published; it served, in fact, as the basis for the first publication of the essay--a somewhat shortened form translated into French--in 1936.
    • La obra de arte en la época de su reproductibilidad técnica. Urtext, trans. Andrés E. Weikert, México DF: Itaca, 2003, 127 pp. (Spanish)
    • "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Second Version", trans. Edmund Jephcott and Harry Zohn, in The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, eds. Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty and Thomas Y. Levin, Cambridge/London: The Belknap Press, 2008, pp 19-55. (English)
  • "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Erste Fassung)", in Benjamin, Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Bd 16: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2013, pp 7-51. Written in Autumn 1935 in Paris. Part (2013). (German)
  • "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Fünfte Fassung)", in Benjamin, Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Bd 16: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2013, pp 207-255. (German)

• Moskauer Tagebuch, ed. Gary Smith, Suhrkamp, 1980, 222 pp. (German) [8]
  • "Moscow Diary", ed. Gary Smith, trans. Richard Sieburth, October 35 (Winter 1985), MIT Press, 151 pp. (English)
  • Diario de Moscú, trans. Marisa Delgado, Buenos Aires: Taurus, 1990, 172 pp. (Spanish)

• "Der Sürrealismus: Die letzte Momentaufnahme der europäischen Intelligenz", Literarischen Welt, Feb 1929; repr. in Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, II/1, 1977, pp 295-310. (German)
  • "Surrealism: The Last Snapshot of the European Intelligentsia", trans. Edmond Jephcott, New Left Review 108 (1978), pp 47-56, HTML; repr. in Benjamin, One-Way Street and Other Writings, 1979. (English)

• "The Author as Producer", in Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. 2, Part 2, 1931-1934, Harvard University Press, 1999, pp 768-782. Address at the Institute for the Study of Fascism, Paris, 27 Apr 1934. (English)

Selected and collected writings

In German

• Illuminationen. Ausgewählte Schriften 1, ed. Siegfried Unseld, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1961; 2001, 432 pp. [9]
• Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit: Drei Studien zur Kunstsoziologie, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1963, 112 pp; 2003. [10]
• Versuche über Brecht, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1966.
• Gesammelte Schriften, Bd I-VII, in collaboration with Theodor W. Adorno and Gershom Scholem, eds. Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhäuser, 7 vols. (14 parts) and 3 supplements, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1972-1999; revised ed. in 7 vols. (14 parts), Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1991. [11]
  • Band I/1-3: Abhandlungen, 1974, 1276 pp; 1991. [12]
  • Band II/1-3: Aufsätze, Essays, Vorträge, 1977, 1526 pp; 1991. [13]
  • Band III: Kritiken und Rezensionen, 1972, 727 pp; 1991. [14]
  • Band IV/1-2: Kleine Prosa. Baudelaire-Übertragungen, 1972, 1108 pp; 1991. [15]
  • Band V/1-2: Das Passagen-Werk, 1982, 1354 pp; 1991. [16] [17]
  • Band VI: Fragmente vermischten Inhalts. Autobiographische Schriften, 1985, 840 pp; 1991. [18]
  • Band VII/1-2: Nachträge, 1989, 1024 pp; 1991. [19]
  • Suppl. I: Kleinere Übersetzungen, 1999, 457 pp. [20]
  • Suppl. II: Marcel Proust, Im Schatten der jungen Mädchen, 1987, 535 pp. [21]
  • Suppl. III: Übersetzung (mit Franz Hessel): Marcel Proust, Guermantes, 1987, 596 pp. [22]
  • Briefe, Bd.1-2, 1978, 885 pp.
• Charles Baudelaire. Ein Lyriker im Zeitalter des Hochkapitalismus, ed. Rolf Tiedemann, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1974, 194 pp. [23]
• Das Passagen-Werk - 2 Bände im Schuber, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982, 1380 pp. [24]
• Deutsche Menschen - Eine Folge von Briefen, ed. Walter Benjamin, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1983, 99 pp. [25]
• Denkbilder, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1994, 138 pp. [26]
• Zur Kritik der Gewalt und andere Aufsätze, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1999, 112 pp. [27]
• Über Haschisch, ed. Tillman Rexroth, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000, 152 pp. [28]
• Medienästhetische Schriften, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2002, 448 pp. [29]
• Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit - und weitere Dokumente, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007, 254 pp. [30]
• Erzählen - Schriften zur Theorie der Narration und zur literarischen Prosa, ed. Alexander Honold, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007, 349 pp. [31]
• Passagen - Schriften zur französischen Literatur, ed. Gérard Raulet, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007, 455 pp. [32]
• Kairos - Schriften zur Philosophie, ed. Ralf Konersmann, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007, 355 pp. [33]
• Wahlverwandtschaften - Aufsätze und Reflexionen über deutschsprachige Literatur, ed. Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2007, 483 pp. [34]
• Werke und Nachlaß. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 21 vols, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. [35]
  • Band 3: Der Begriff der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik, ed. Uwe Steiner, 2008, 398 pp. [36]
  • Band 8: Einbahnstraße, eds. Detlev Schöttker with Steffen Haug, 2009, 610 pp. [37]
  • Band 9: Rundfunkarbeiten, trans. Thomas Küpper and Anja Nowak, 2014, 900 pp. [38]
  • Band 10: Deutsche Menschen, ed. Momme Brodersen, 2008, 542 pp. [39]
  • Band 13/1-2: Kritiken und Rezensionen, ed. Heinrich Kaulen, 2011, 2000 pp. [40]
  • Band 16: Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit, ed. Burkhardt Lindner, 2013, 722 pp. [41] Contents.
  • Band 19: Über den Begriff der Geschichte, 2010, 380 pp. [42]
• Träume, ed. Burkhardt Lindner, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2008, 167 pp. [43]
• Über den Begriff der Geschichte, ed. Gerard Raulet, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2010.
• Benjamin's Bibliography at German Wikisource [44]

In English

• Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, 1968; New York: Schocken Books, 2007.
• One-Way Street and Other Writings, London: NLB, 1979, IA, ARG.
• Selected Writings, 4 vols., Harvard University Press, 1996-2003.
  • Volume 1, 1913-1926, eds. Marcus Bullock and Michael W. Jennings, 1996.
  • Volume 2, 1927-1934, 2 parts (1927-1930; 1931-1934). [45]
    • Volume 2, Part 1: 1927-1930, eds. Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith, 1999; 2005, PDF. [46]
    • Volume 2, Part 2: 1931-1934, eds. Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland and Gary Smith, 1999; 2005, PDF. [47]
  • Volume 3, 1935-1938, eds. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, 2002; 2006, 480 pp, PDF. [48]
  • Volume 4, 1938-1940, eds. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings, 2003; 2006, 496 pp, PDF. [49]
• Understanding Brecht, London/New York: Verso, 1998.
• The Arcades Project, Belknap Press, 1999.
• The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire, ed. Michael W. Jennings, trans. Howard Eiland, Edmund Jephcott, Rodney Livingston, and Harry Zohn, Harvard University Press, 2006, 306 pp, PDF.
• On Hashish, trans. Howard Eiland and others, intro. Marcus Boon, Belknap Press, 2006, IA, ARG.
• The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, eds. Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty and Thomas Y. Levin, trans. Edmund Jephcott, et al., Cambridge/London: The Belknap Press, 2008.
• Early Writings, 1910-1917, Cambridge/MA and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.
• Radio Benjamin, ed. Lecia Rosenthal, trans. Jonathan Lutes, with Lisa Harries Schumann and Diana K. Reese, London and New York: Verso, 2014.

In Spanish

• Iluminaciones II: Baudelaire: un poeta en el esplendor del capitalismo, trans. Jesús Aguirre, Madrid: Taurus, 1972.
• Infancia en Berlín hacia 1900, trans. Klaus Wagner, Madrid: Alfaguara, 1982, 144 pp.
• Discursos Interrumpidos I. Filosofia del arte y de la historia, Buenos Aires: Taurus, 1989.
• Radio Benjamin, ed. Lecia Rosenthal, trans. Joaquín Chamorro, Madrid: Akal, 2015, ARG.

In Serbo-Croatian

• Uz kritiku sile: eseji, Zagreb: Biblioteka Razlog, 1971. Review: Rus (ZU).
• Eseji, trans. Milan Tabaković, Belgrade: Nolit, 1974, 324 pp.

In Czech

• Dílo a jeho zdroj, ed. R. Grebeníčková, trans. Věra Saudková, Prague: Odeon, 1979.
• Agesilaus Santander. Výbor z textů, Prague: Herrmann a synové, 1998.

In Portuguese

• Obras escolhidas, vol. 1: Magia e técnica, arte e política. Ensaios sobre literatura e historia da cultura, trans. Sergi Paulo Rouanet, São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1985; 3rd Ed., 1987, 253 pp.
• Obras escolhidas, vol. 2: Rua de mâo unica, trans. Rubens Rodrigues Torres Filho and José Carlos Martins Barbosa, São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1987.

In Russian

• Proizvedenie iskusstva v epokhu ego tekhnicheskoy vosproizvodimosti. Izbrannye esse [Произведение искусства в эпоху его технической воспроизводимости. Избранные эссе], trans. S.A. Romashko (С.А. Ромашко), Moscow: Medium, 1996, 239 pp.

In Slovak

• Iluminácie, trans. Adam Bžoch and Jana Truhlářová, Bratislava: Kalligram, 1999.

Miscellanea

• Écrits Radiophoniques, Editions Allia, 2014. Benjamin’s radiophonic works. Excerpt, [50], [51], Commentary. (French)

Correspondence

• Briefe I, 1910-1928, ed. & annot. Gershom Scholem and Theodor W. Adorno, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1966; 1978, 885 pp. (German)
• Gesammelte Schriften. Briefe, 2 vols., Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1978, 885 pp; 1993. (German)
• "Reply" [to Adorno's Letters to Walter Benjamin], trans. Harry Zohn, in Adorno, Benjamin, Bloch, Brecht, Lukács, Aesthetics and Politics, London: Verso, 1980, pp 134-141. Written 9 December 1938. (English)
• with Gershom Scholem, Briefwechsel, 1933-1940, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980. (German)
  • The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, 1932-1940, ed. Gershom Scholem, trans. Gary Smith and Andre Lefevere, intro. Anson Rabinbach, New York: Schocken Books, 1989. (English)
• The Correspondence of Walter Benjamin, 1910-1940, University of Chicago Press, 1994, PDF. (English)
• Gesammelte Briefe, 6 vols., Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1994-2000. (German)
  • Band I: Theodor W. Adorno/Walter Benjamin. Briefwechsel 1928–1940, 1994, 504 pp. [52]
  • Band II: Briefe 1919–1924, 1996, 549 pp. [53]
  • Band III: Briefe 1925–1930, 1997, 594 pp. [54]
  • Band IV: Briefe 1931–1934, 1998, 593 pp. [55]
  • Band V: Briefe 1935–1937, 1999, 672 pp. [56]
  • Band VI: Briefe 1938–1940, 2000, 632 pp. [57]
• with Gretel Adorno, Briefwechsel 1930–1940, eds. Christoph Gödde and Henri Lonitz, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005, 434 pp. [58](German)

Diaries

• "Conversations with Brecht", trans. Anya Bostock, in Adorno, Benjamin, Bloch, Brecht, Lukács, Aesthetics and Politics, London: Verso, 1980, pp 86-99. (English)

Literature

Monographs

• Susan Buck-Morss, The Origin of Negative Dialectics: Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and the Frankfurt Institute, New York: The Free Press, 1977; London: Harvester Press, 1978; 2002. (English)
  • Origen de la dialéctica negativa, trans. Nora Rabotnikof Maskivker, Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1981. (Spanish)
• Terry Eagleton, Walter Benjamin, or, Towards a Revolutionary Criticism, London: NLB, 1981. (English)
• Bernd Witte, Walter Benjamin: Einführung in Leben und Werk, Rororo, 1985, 160 pp. [59] (German)
  • Walter Benjamin: An Intellectual Biography, trans. James Rolleston, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1991, 226 pp, ARG. (English)
• Susan Buck-Morss, The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, MIT Press, 1989. (English)
  • Dialektik des Sehens - Walter Benjamin und das Passagen-Werk, trans. Joachim Schulte, Frankfurt-am-Main: Suhrkamp, 1993.[60] (German)
  • Dialéctica de la mirada: Walter Benjamin y la dialéctica de los pasajes, Madrid: Visor, 1995. (Spanish)
  • Dialética do olhar: Walter Benjamin e o projeto das passagens, trans. Ana Luiza Andrade, Belo Horizonte: Editora da UFMG, 2002. (Portuguese)
  • Η διαλεκτική της όρασης: Ο Βάλτερ Μπένγιαμιν και το Σχέδιο Eργασίας περί Στοών, trans. Αθανασάκης Μανόλης, Crete University Press, 2009. [61] (Greek)
  • Görmenin Diyalektiği: Walter Benjamin ve Pasajlar Projesi, trans. Ferit Burak Aydar, Istanbul: Metis, 2010. [62] (Turkish)
• François Proust, L'histoire à contretemps. Le temps historique chez Walter Benjamin, Paris: Cerf, 1994, PDF, ARG. Review (French)
• Richard Wolin, Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, University of California Press, 1994. (English)
• Margaret Cohen, Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution, University of California Press, 1995. (English)
• Sigrid Weigel, Body- and Image- Space: Re-reading Walter Benjamin, Routledge, 1996, 224 pp. (English)
• Rainer Rochlitz, The Disenchantment of Art: The Philosophy of Walter Benjamin, Guilford Press, 1996. (English)
• Gérard Raulet, Le caractère destructeur: Esthétique, théologie et politique chez Walter Benjamin, Paris: Aubier, 1998, ARG. (French)
• Kia Lindroos, Now-Time. Image-Space. Temporalization of Politics in Walter Benjamin's Philosophy of History and Art, Jyvaskyla: Kampus Kirja, 1998. (English)
• Matthew Rampley, Remembrance of Things Past. On Aby M. Warburg and Walter Benjamin, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000, 138 pp. (English)
• Graeme Gilloch, Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations, Polity Press, 2002. (English)
• Eric Jacobson, Metaphysics of the Profane: The Political Theology of Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem, Columbia University Press, 2003. (English)
• Tim Beasley-Murray, Mikhail Bakhtin and Walter Benjamin: Experience and Form, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. (English)
• Esther Leslie, Walter Benjamin, Reaktion Books, 2008. (English)
• Andrew Benjamin, Charles Rice (eds.), Walter Benjamin and the Architecture of Modernity, Melbourne: re.press, 2009. (English)
• Erdmut Wizisla, Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht: The Story of a Friendship, Yale University Press, 2009. (English)
• César Rendueles, Ana Useros, Atlas Constelaciones, Madrid: Círculo de Bellas Artes, 2010. Catalogue. (Spanish)
• Elizabeth Stewart, Catastrophe and Survival: Walter Benjamin and Psychoanalysis, Continuum, 2010. (English)
• Momme Brodersen, Klassenbild mit Walter Benjamin: Eine Spurensuche, Munich: Siedler, 2012, 240 pp. (German)
• Tobias Robert Klein (ed.), Klang und Musik bei Walter Benjamin, Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2013, 224 pp. [63] (German)
• Sigrid Weigel, Walter Benjamin: Images, the Creaturely, and the Holy Stanford: Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2013, 320 pp. [64] (English)
• Howard Eiland, Michael W. Jennings, Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life, Harvard University Press, 2014. (English)
• Tara Forrest, The Politics of Imagination: Benjamin, Kracauer, Kluge, Bielefeld: transcript, 2015, 198 pp. [65] (English)
• The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin, ed. Jens Hoffmann, New York: Jewish Museum, and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017, 136 pp. Catalogue; with contributions by Caroline A. Jones, Vito Manolo Roma and Kenneth Goldsmith. Exh. reviews: Trojanska (Metropolis M), Morowitz (Modernism/modernity), Barliant (Bomb), Sachs (Artforum). Exhibition. (English)

Walter Benjamin Studies, Bloomsbury [66]

Eds. Andrew Benjamin, Monash University, and Beatrice Hanssen.

• Andrew Benjamin, Beatrice Hanssen (eds.), Walter Benjamin and Romanticism, 2002. [67] (English)
• Andrew Benjamin (ed.), Walter Benjamin and Art, 2005. [68] (English)
• Andrew Benjamin (ed.), Walter Benjamin and History, 2006. [69] (English)
• Beatrice Hanssen (ed.), Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, 2006. [70] (English)

Journal issues

• New German Critique 17: "Walter Benjamin", Spring 1979. (English)
• Critical Inquiry 25(2): "Angelus Novus: Perspectives on Walter Benjamin", Winter 1999. (English)
• New German Critique 83: "Walter Benjamin", Summer-Spring 2001. (English)
• Boundary 2: "Benjamin Now: Critical Encounters With the Arcades Project", Spring 2003. (English)
• Discourse 32(1): "Benjamin in Latin America", 2010. (English)
• Grey Room 39: "Walter Benjamin's Media Tactics: Optics, Perception, and the Work of Art", Spring 2010. [71] (English)
• Appareil 12: "Walter Benjamin. Politiques de l'image", Paris, 2013. (French)
• Footprint 18: "Constellation of Awakening: Benjamin and Architecture", Spring/Summer 2016. (English)
• Anthropology & Materialism 1: "Discontinuous Infinities: Walter Benjamin and Philosophy", eds. Jan Sieber and Sebastian Truskolaski, Mar 2017. (English)

Essays (selection)

• Matthew Rampley, "Archives of Memory: Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project and Aby Warburg's Mnemosyne Atlas", in The Optic of Walter Benjamin, ed. Alex Coles, 1999, pp 94-117. (English)
• Charles W. Haxthausen, "Reproduction/Repetition: Walter Benjamin/Carl Einstein", October 107, Winter 2004, pp. 47-74. (English)
• Esther Leslie, "Walter Benjamin, Politics, Aesthetics, Rebelart, 2009. (English)
• Peter Osborne, Matthew Charles, "Walter Benjamin", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2011; rev., 2015. (English)
• Morgan Meis, "Jerk Reaction", The Smart Set, 13 Jan 2014. (English)
• McKenzie Wark, "Benjamedia", Public Seminar, 27 Aug 2015. (English)
• Sarah K. Stanley, "Revolutionary Climatology: Rings of Saturn, Ringed by Red Lightning", Footprint 18, Spring/Summer 2016, pp 91-108. (English)

See also

• Theodor Adorno
• Asja Lacis
• Walter Benjamin Archives

Links

• The Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate
• Benjamin in Bibliotheca Augustana
• "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" at Wikipedia