Walter Benjamin
(b. July 15, 1892, Berlin, Germany -- d.
Sept. 26, 1940, near Port-Bou, France)
Man of letters and aesthetician now considered to have been the most
important German literary critic in the first half of the 20th century. The
posthumous publication of Benjamin's essays won him a growing reputation
later in the 20th century. His philosophical reflections on literature mix
social criticism and linguistic analysis with historical nostalgia, while
communicating an underlying sense of pathos and pessimism.
History
Born into a prosperous Jewish family, Benjamin studied philosophy in Berlin,
Freiburg im Breisgaw, Munich, and Bern. He settled in Berlin in 1920 and
worked thereafter as a literary critic and translator. Benjamin left Germany
in 1933 upon the Nazis' rise to power, and eventually settled in Paris, where
he continued to write essays and reviews for literary journals. Fleeing
from Nazi-occupied France in 1940, Benjamin committed suicide when he was
told that he would be turned over to the Gestapo.
Movements
Frankfurt School
Writings
Benjamin's independence and originality are evident in the essay
Goethes Wahlverwandtscheaften (1925-26; "Goethe's Elective Affinities")
, and his doctoral thesis Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspeils
(1928; The Origin of German Tragic Drama), which was rejected by the University
of Frankfurt.
Influential People
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