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Introduction

Reading Benjamin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

David S. Ferris
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder
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Summary

With the appearance of Harvard University Press's edition of Walter Benjamin's Selected Writings, the great range of this thinker, critic, social commentator, and theorist has become even more apparent in the English-speaking world. Making this range more readily available will undoubtedly prompt the discussion and understanding of Benjamin to move beyond the limited number of essays that have achieved canonical status wherever the name of Benjamin is evoked, particularly in Anglo-American criticism. Admittedly this access to a wider range of material in English will complicate the received picture of Benjamin even as it offers greater scope to track the development of his thought and the concepts through which it was expressed. In many ways, this Cambridge Companion has been edited with a view to providing a guide to the concepts and issues that will come under scrutiny as this fuller evaluation of Benjamin's thought gets under way within the English-language interpretation of his writings.

The organization of the volume has been guided by two concerns. First, to achieve an adequate account of key elements in Benjamin’s thought and, second, to place these elements in relation to each other so that the shifting emphases and material through which Benjamin developed his thinking can be discerned. The organization is then thematic, taking up issues that traverse Benjamin’s writing. While every attempt has been made to be comprehensive, the essays commissioned for this volume do not exhaust the wealth of interest in philosophical, cultural, theological, or historical materials exhibited by this critic.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

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  • Introduction
  • Edited by David S. Ferris, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521793297.001
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  • Introduction
  • Edited by David S. Ferris, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521793297.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by David S. Ferris, University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Walter Benjamin
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521793297.001
Available formats
×