Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism)

Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism #5

by Margaret Cohen

Margaret Cohen's encounter with Walter Benjamin, one of the twentieth century's most influential cultural and literary critics, has produced a radically new reading of surrealist thought and practice. Cohen analyzes the links between Breton's surrealist fusion of psychoanalysis and Marxism and Benjamin's post-Enlightenment challenge to Marxist theory. She argues that Breton's surrealist Marxism played a formative role in shaping postwar French intellectual life and is of continued relevance to the contemporary intellectual scene.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Politics, France

284 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 1993

Reviews

[xenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be an in-depth analysis of Walter Benjamin's messianic psychogeography ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ) but it's actually an in-depth review of Andre Breton's Paris trilogy ┬──┬ ︵(╯。□。）╯

A found poem (pp. 134) of my sadness over this betrayal:

to what extent did this encounter give you

the impression of being ?

asks Breton

\ᇂ_ᇂ\ \ᇂ_ᇂ\ \ᇂ_ᇂ\ \ᇂ_ᇂ\ \ᇂ_ᇂ\

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read sections of it again, an excellent read.