Melancholy Dialectics: Walter Benjamin and the Play of Mourning(Critical Perspectives on Modern Culture)

In recent years the German-Jewish critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin has come to be regarded as one of the leading intellectual figures of the 20th century. Yet much of his work, particularly his theoretical writing, remains elusive. This book offers a new, comprehensive interpretation of Benjamin's ""oeuvre"", focusing on the central ideas of mourning and melancholia. According to Max Pensky, the contradictions in Benjamin's thought - from his early ""mystical"" theory of literary criticism through his adoption of Marxist and surrealist doctrines to his final version of ""materialist historiography"" - can be understood as his long-term personal and theoretical response to these two ideas. For Benjamin, melancholia was both a subjective disposition that threatened the individual with incapacitating sadness and a highly sophisticated mode of understanding that provided a form of spiritual insight into the structure of historical reality. Benjamin's goal, in Pensky's view, was to transform his own melancholy character into an instrument of critical acumen and, ultimately, revolutionary action. Through close readings of the ""Origin of the German Play of Mourning"" (Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels), the essays on surrealism and Baudelaire, and the massive, unfinished ""Arcades Project"", Pensky demonstrates that Benjamin's attempt to work through this ""melancholy dialectics"" lies at the core of his mature thought.

About the Author :
Max Pensky is associate professor of philosophy at Binghamton University.

Review :
A comprehensive view of Benjamin's achievement, focusing on the central ideas of mourning and melancholia, developed in Benjamin's early work, Origin of German Tragic Drama (1928). Pensky sees the contradictions in Benjamin's thought as part of the 'melancholy way of seeing. Between melancholy subject and melancholy objects, this way of seeing subsists in the dialectical interval between these two constituted moments.' All of Benjamin's modes, especially allegory, and all of his literary/philosophical works are here viewed as part of the melancholic dialectic. Pensky has clearly mastered all the available material on Benjamin, as well as the relevant cultural criticism. --Choice A work of original insight, conceptual subtlety, and intellectual excitement. This will become an important work within the burgeoning field of Benjamin studies. --David Bathrick, Cornell University Pensky shows Benjamin's ideas of a new criticism of nature and culture to be based on his schema of mourning and melancholy; as well Pensky explains the concepts of subjectivity, allegory, and the dialectical image in Benjamin's work.... A difficult subject, well handled. --Library Journal Pensky's study provides a compelling argument for locating melancholia at the center of Benjamin's thought. Because of its provocative nature, it promises to spark the interest of Benjamin critics, scholars, and students in this otherwise neglected aspect of his work. --German Quarterly