Walter Benjamin
Critical Constellations
Key Contemporary Thinkers
1. Edition December 2001
320 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
The works of Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) are widely acclaimed as
being among the most original and provocative writings of
twentieth-century critical thought, and have become required
reading for scholars and students in a range of academic
disciplines.
This book provides a lucid introduction to Benjamin's oeuvre
through a close and sensitive reading not only of his major
studies, but also of some of his less familiar essays and
fragments. Gilloch offers an original interpretation of, and fresh
insights into, the continuities between Benjamin's always demanding
and seemingly disparate texts.
Gilloch's book will be of particular interest to students and
scholars in social theory, literary theory, cultural and media
studies and urban studies who are seeking a sophisticated yet
readable overview of Benjamin's work. It will also prove rewarding
reading for those already well-versed in Benjaminian thought.
Abbreviations x
Introduction: Benjamin as a Key Contemporary Thinker 1
1 Immanent Criticism and Exemplary Critique 27
2 Allegory and Melancholy 57
3 From Cityscape to Dreamworld 88
4 Paris and the Arcades 113
5 Culture and Critique in Crisis 140
6 Benjamin On-Air, Benjamin on Aura 163
7 Love at Last Sight 198
Conclusion: Towards a Contemporary Constellation 234
Notes 249
Bibliography 289
Index 298
with great clarity and richly located within his biography.
Gilloch's focus upon Benjamin's reconstruction of the 'afterlife'
of things enables him to reveal new interconnections and
interpretive trajectories within Benjamin's themes and texts,
whether they be his writings on language, literature, the city, the
new media or the Arcades Project. A most welcome addition to
Polity's series on contemporary thinkers." David Frisby,
University of Glasgow
"A fine text to accompany a firsthand reading of Benjamin, such
reading is necessary to understand the thinker critiqued here."
Library Journal
"The book highlights some major motifs of Benjamin's work and
will probably be of interest, above all, to students of media and
related aspects of social history or theory" Brendan Moran,
Philosophy in Review
