Walter Benjamin and the Critique of Political Economy
A New Historical Materialism
- 312 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Exploring the connections between Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history and a Marxian Critique of Political Economy, Duy Lap Nguyen analyses Benjamin's early writings and their development into a distinct understanding of historical materialism. Benjamin's historically materialist conception of history is shown to be characterised by a focus on the religion of capitalism, the mythology of the state, and messianic time. Revealing these factors, Nguyen joins up Benjamin's philosophical critique of the Kantian conception of history, alongside the historical trajectory of capitalism he subscribed to. Influenced by the theory of fascism outlined by German Marxist theorist Karl Korsch, we see how Benjamin's own theory of revolution and redemption in capitalist society developed into a sophisticated critique. Essential to Benjamin's materialist critique was a recognition of the fallibility of the Enlightenment notion of progress, as well as the need to overturn the political and economic catastrophes which enable capitalism and fascism to thrive. In mapping the exact course of Benjamin's critical historical materialism, Nguyen fully explicates the unique contribution he made to western Marxism.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle Page
- Title Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface: Historical Materialism and Profane Messianism
- Introduction: Capitalism and Eternity
- 1 Knowledge and Ephemeral Experience in the Coming Philosophy
- 2 The Doctrine of Right and the Critique of Violence: Benjamin’s Anarchist Revision of Kant’s Moral Philosophy
- 3 The Aesthetic Extreme and the Dialectic of Allegory: Schmitt, Lukács, and the Origin of the Trauerspiel Book
- 4 Mechanical and Historical Time in Benjamin and Heidegger
- 5 Neo-Kantianism and the Critique of Political Economy
- 6 Fourier or the Arcades: The Liberation of Work and Desire or an Eternity of the New
- 7 Benjamin and Bataille: The General Economy of the Arcades or Expenditure in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
- Conclusion: The Angel of History, the Owl of Minerva, and the Eternal Return
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
- Imprint