"Every line we succeed in publishing today...is a victory wrested from the powers of darkness." So wrote Walter Benjamin in January 1940. Not long afterward, he himself would fall prey to those powers, a victim of suicide following a failed attempt to flee the Nazis. However insistently the idea of catastrophe hangs over Benjamins writings in the final years of his life, the "victories wrested" in this period nonetheless constitute some of the most remarkable twentieth-century analyses of the emergence of modern society. This volume ranges from studies of Baudelaire, Brecht, and the historian Carl Jochmann to appraisals of photography, film, and poetry. At their core is the question of how art can survive and thrive in a tumultuous time. Here, we see Benjamin laying out an ethic for the critic and artist - a subdued but resilient heroism. The entire collection is eloquent testimony to the indomitable spirit of humanity under siege.
FRUITS OF EXILE, 1938 (PART 2) 1. The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire 2. Blanqui 3. The Study Begins with Some Reflections on the Influence of Les Fleurs du mal 4. Exchange with Theodor W. Adorno on "The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire" 5. Review of Renevilles Experience poetique 6. Review of Freunds Photographie en France au dix-neuvieme siecle 7. Reviw of Francescos Macht des Charlatans 8. A chronicle of Germanys Unemployed 9. A Novel of German Jews THEORY OF REMEMBRANCE, 1939 1. Review of Honigswalds Philosophie und Sprache 2. Review of Sternbergers Panorama 3. Review of Beguins Ame romantique et le reve 4. Note on Brecht 5. Central Park 6. Exchange with Theodor W. Adorno on "The Flaneur" Section of "The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire" 7. Commentary on Poems by Brecht 8. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Third Version 9. Germans of 1789 10. What is the Epic Theater? (II) MATERIALIST THEOLOGY, 1940 1. On Some Motifs in Baudelaire 2. "The Regression of Poetry," by Carl Gustav Jochmann 3. Curriculum Vitae (VI): Dr. Walter Benjamin 4. On Scheerbart 5. On the Concept of History 6. Paralipomena to "On the Concept of History" 7. Letter to Theodor W. Adorno on Baudelaire, Goerge and Hofmannsthal A Note on the Texts Chronology List of writings in Volumes 1-4 Index