An advanced introduction to Benjamin's work and its actualization for our own times. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) has emerged as one of the leading cultural critics of the twentieth century. His work encompasses aesthetics, metaphysical language and narrative theories, German literary history, philosophies of history, the intersection of Marxism and Messianic thought, urban topography, and the development of photography and film. Benjamin defined the task of the critic as one that blasts endangered moments of the past out of the continuum of history so that they attain new significance. This volume of new essays employs this principle of actualization as its methodological program in offering a new advanced introduction to Benjamin's own work. The essays analyze Benjamin's central texts, themes, terminologies, and genres in their original contexts while simultaneously situating them in new parameters, such as contemporary media, memory culture, constructions of gender, postcoloniality, and theories of urban topographies. The Companion brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars to explicate Benjamin's actuality from a multidisciplinary perspective. Designed for audiences interested in literary criticism, cultural studies, and neighboring disciplines, the volume serves as a stimulus for new debates about Benjamin's intellectual legacy today. Contributors: Wolfgang Bock, Willi Bolle, Dianne Chisholm, Adrian Daub, Dominik Finkelde, Eric Jarosinski, Lutz Koepnick, Vivian Liska, Karl Ivan Solibakke, Marc de Wilde, Bernd Witte Rolf J. Goebel is Distinguished Professor of German and Chair of the Department of WorldLanguages and Cultures at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

An advanced introduction to Benjamin's work and its actualization for our own times. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) has emerged as one of the leading cultural critics of the twentieth century. His work encompasses aesthetics, metaphysical language and narrative theories, German literary history, philosophies of history, the intersection of Marxism and Messianic thought, urban topography, and the development of photography and film. Benjamin defined the task of the critic as one that blasts endangered moments of the past out of the continuum of history so that they attain new significance. This volume of new essays employs this principle of actualization as its methodological program in offering a new advanced introduction to Benjamin's own work. The essays analyze Benjamin's central texts, themes, terminologies, and genres in their original contexts while simultaneously situating them in new parameters, such as contemporary media, memory culture, constructions of gender, postcoloniality, and theories of urban topographies. The Companion brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars to explicate Benjamin's actuality from a multidisciplinary perspective. Designed for audiences interested in literary criticism, cultural studies, and neighboring disciplines, the volume serves as a stimulus for new debates about Benjamin's intellectual legacy today. Contributors: Wolfgang Bock, Willi Bolle, Dianne Chisholm, Adrian Daub, Dominik Finkelde, Eric Jarosinski, Lutz Koepnick, Vivian Liska, Karl Ivan Solibakke, Marc de Wilde, Bernd Witte Rolf J. Goebel is Distinguished Professor of German and Chair of the Department of WorldLanguages and Cultures at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Das Verhaltnis von Sozialdemokratie und Intellektuellen in Deutschland was durchaus nicht spannungsfrei. Denn die Sozialdemokratie als fuhrender Teil der Arbeiterbewegung hatte ihre Probleme mit den Intellektuellen, die sie teilweise unterstutzten und andererseits aber auch oft scharf kritisierten.
Kennzeichen der Beziehung zwischen Intellektuellen und Politik war in der Vergangenheit eher die Diatanz, wenn nicht gar auch die Verachtung. Burgerliche Intellektuelle und Liberale hielten sich von der Politik fern. Dies reichte bis zu Thomas Manns "Betrachtung eines Unpolitischen," worin er sich vom wesentlichen Verfassungs- und Demokratiebegriff distanzierte. Solche Spannungen und Abstande waren auch fur das Verhaltnis zur Sowjetunion, das zwischen Bewunderung und Ablehnung schwankte.
Seit 1945 ist die Beziehung zwischen Sozialdemokratie und Intellektuellen nicht weniger kompliziert geworden. Auch wenn grosse Teile der literarischen Intelligenz, z.b. um die Gruppe 47 und spater um die von Gunter Grass initiierte Wahlerinitiative, die SPD unterstutzten, so blieben dennoch viele Anlasse fur Diatanz und Unverstehen auf beiden Seiten
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Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was the quintessential European intellectual between the two world wars. Historian, philosopher, literary critic, student of language and culture, and journalist, the independent scholar was forever trying to define himself and his time as products of a tradition in crisis. In a very real sense, Benjamin's life and work were one--a chronicle of the modern European intellectual and mirror of an era. Bernd Witte's interpretive biography introduces Benjamin through critical thought and through topics and authors that ignited Benjamin's work. For the first time, English readers have the opportunity to survey the facts surrounding Benjamin's life and assess the interpretations of his texts. Witte's quest for Benjamin's own perspective yields a full chronology and sympathetic mastery of Benjamin's ideas. The German edition, titled Walter Benjamin: Einfiihrung in Leben und Werk, was published in 1985.

Heine und Schumann im Wechselspiel von Literatur und Musik. Ausgehend von den vielen Beruhrungspunkten im Schaffen und Wirken der beiden Romantiker, haben Experten Beziehungen zwischen Musik, Bild und Literatur, Kunst- und Kulturkritik neu untersucht und eine Fulle uberraschender Erkenntnisse formuliert.