The Complete Correspondence, 1928-1940
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.11 (553 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0674154274 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
A Classic This volume constitutes the complete collection of written letters between Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin, a genuine testament to the richness and intensity of their intellectual collaboration. Perhaps more than any other—only Gershom Scholem comes to mind—Adorno was able to ignite Benjamin’s creative capacities. Beginning as his intellectual junior, Adorno approached the latter with a kind of critical insecurity that is characteristic of many young, ascendant thinkers. As time progresses and we witness the deep and tangled turns their respective paths would take, Ador
Hounded by the Gestapo, in 1940 Benjamin committed suicide while trying to escape. He pressed the elusive thinker hard and in illuminating detail on "The Arcades Project." Over many of its pages, this correspondence delves deeply into this strange, unfinished masterpiece. The final letter of this collection is a suicide note. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. In 1938, Benjamin writes to his friend "Teddie": "I do not know how long it will still physically be possible to breathe this European air." Not long, as it turns out. The 121 letters in this carefully annotated and beautifully translated volume present a remarkable dialogue between two innovative thinkers. But the letters are also humanly touching. Their extraordinary correspondence caught fire when Hitler's rise to power in 1933 drove the two German Jews into exile: Benjamin to Paris, Adorno to England and t
When this book appeared in German, it caused a sensation because it includes passages previously excised from other German editions of the letters--passages in which the two friends celebrate their own intimacy with frank remarks about other people. Benjamin, riddle-like in his personality and given to tactical evasion, and Adorno, full of his own importance, alternately support and compete with each other throughout the correspondence, until its imminent tragic end becomes apparent to both writers. The more than one hundred letters in this book will allow readers to trace the developing character of Benjamin's and Adorno's attitudes toward each other and toward their many friends. Each had met his match, and happily, in the other. Adorno was the only person who managed to sustain an intimate intellectual relationship with Benjamin for nearly twenty years. The correspondence between Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, which appears here for the first time in its entirety in English translation