Walter Benjamin: Images, the Creaturely, and the Holy

by Sigrid Weigel, Chadwick Smith (Translator)

Arguing that the importance of painting and other visual art for Benjamin's epistemology has yet to be appreciated, Weigel undertakes the first systematic analysis of their significance to his thought. She does so by exploring Benjamin's dialectics of secularization, an approach that allows Benjamin to explore the simultaneous distance from and orientation towards revelation and to deal with the difference and tensions between religious and profane ideas. In the process, Weigel identifies the double reference of 'life' to both nature and to a 'supernatural' sphere as a guiding concept of Benjamin's writings. Sensitive to the notorious difficulty of translating his language, she underscores just how much is lost in translation, particularly with regard to religious connotations. The book thus positions Benjamin with respect to the other European thinkers at the heart of current discussions of sovereignty and martyrdom, of holy and creaturely life. It corrects misreadings, including Agamben's staging of an affinity between Benjamin and Schmitt, and argues for the closeness of Benjamin's work to that of Aby Warburg, with whom Benjamin unsuccessfully attempted an intellectual exchange.

315 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2008

Reviews

[Neal Spadafora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Notwithstanding the cottage industry of academic monographs that for two decades have either helpfully or unhelpfully exegeted Walter Benjamin’s work and concepts, Weigel argues that Benjamin’s eschatological and soteriological themes are of remaining importance for continental philosophy. Studying Benjamin’s fascination with everyday images, art, and commodities, Weigel demonstrates how the nexus of Benjamin’s rather mundane and lowbrow interests attests to his mystical eye for earthly matters. In underscoring how much is loss in translation from Benjamin’s German writings, Weigel clarifies how Benjamin’s dialectics of secularization highlight everyday glimpses of the holy, martyrdom, and sovereignty.

While Benjamin’s oeuvre has an enjoyed wide reception in literary and media studies, his ideas of sacredness, the holy, sovereignty, and mysticism are often misunderstood or less understood. Additionally, Weigel freshly takes Benjamin out of dialogue with Carl Schmitt and places him in dialogue with Aby Warburg, another overlooked 20th century philosopher.