Walter Benjamin: An Arcade of Reflections

by Alan Wall

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) was a German philosopher, essayist and critic whose work has grown in relevance and importance in the 75 years since his death by suicide on the French-Spanish border as Nazi invaders drew near. In his a mysterious suitcase, now lost. The University of Chester's Alan Wall examines many of the recent contexts for discussions of Benjamin and offers detailed explanations for the overdue resurgence of interest in this important writer.

Alan Wall studied at Oxford and teaches at the University of Chester. For the past several years, he has been writing about Benjamin for The Fortnightly Review . The aim of this collection of essays is to use some of the key concepts of Walter Benjamin in order to describe aspects of contemporary culture and politics. The chapters in this
· Part Uneven and Combined Development
· Part Ancient and Modern
· Part Bad Reading Habits
·Part Spadefuls of Meaning
·Part Walter Benjamin and Aby Warburg -- Photographs of Heaven, Photographs of Hell
· Part The ‘Canonicity’ of Kafka
· Part Baudelaire, Allegory and the Aura
· Part Benjamin’s Angel and His ‘Theses’
· Part Benjamin and Surrealism
· Part Benjamin and the City

fortnightlyreview.co.uk/odd-volumes/

130 pages, Paperback

Published June 2, 2018

About the author

Wall was born in Bradford and studied at the University of Oxford. In addition to his work as a professional author, he has developed a career teaching creative writing with posts at Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Birmingham and the University of Chester. He is also a published poet and critic.